State of Tennessee Department of Treasury Sells 126,119 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

State of Tennessee Department of Treasury cut its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 6.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,761,248 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 126,119 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises approximately 1.2% of State of Tennessee Department of Treasury's holdings, making the stock its 15th largest position. State of Tennessee Department of Treasury's holdings in Alphabet were worth $335,412,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 16,248 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $3,094,000 after purchasing an additional 1,041 shares during the period. North Forty Two & Co. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $281,000. SageView Advisory Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 140.6% in the fourth quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC now owns 14,734 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,806,000 after purchasing an additional 8,610 shares during the period. Requisite Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $927,000. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in Alphabet by 10.9% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,184,399 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,384,039,000 after buying an additional 704,875 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOG has been the subject of several research reports. Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. KeyCorp reduced their price target on shares of Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Scotiabank reduced their price objective on Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $208.38.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 1,340 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. This represents a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total value of $33,106.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,293,285.89. This trade represents a 2.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 148,163 shares of company stock valued at $25,361,647 in the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG traded up $3.75 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $161.47. 30,331,145 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 19,463,024. The company has a market cap of $1.97 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.06, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $142.66 and a twelve month high of $208.70. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $165.19 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $177.19.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.04 by $0.77. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. As a group, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.50%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.94%.

About Alphabet

Alphabet Inc offers various products and platforms in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, Canada, and Latin America. It operates through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. The Google Services segment provides products and services, including ads, Android, Chrome, devices, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Play, Search, and YouTube.