Strs Ohio Grows Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Strs Ohio lifted its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.4% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,882,477 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 61,223 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises 2.1% of Strs Ohio’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest position. Strs Ohio’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $541,325,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Symmetry Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Symmetry Partners LLC now owns 7,912 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,476,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.2% in the first quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 2,540 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $730,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Members Trust Co boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Members Trust Co now owns 6,434 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,014,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. Altfest L J & Co. Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Altfest L J & Co. Inc. now owns 7,952 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,489,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the period. Finally, Insight 2811 Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Insight 2811 Inc. now owns 3,124 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $978,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Marsida Saraci sold 449 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, June 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $341.72, for a total transaction of $153,432.28. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 27,348 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,345,358.56. This trade represents a 1.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,998 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, June 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.29, for a total transaction of $3,142,911.42. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 75,290 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,298,044.10. This represents a 10.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders sold 160,465 shares of company stock valued at $8,020,511. 11.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: KeyCorp raised its price target on Alphabet to $445 from $425 and kept an overweight rating, reinforcing the view that the stock still has meaningful upside from current levels.
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple upbeat articles highlighted Alphabet as a leading AI and cloud beneficiary, with commentary pointing to strong distribution through Search, Android, YouTube, Google Cloud, and chips as reasons it could monetize AI better than peers.
• Positive Sentiment: New coverage argued Alphabet looks undervalued after a big run over the past year, while other pieces said the company remains one of the most attractive megacap tech names on a risk/reward basis.
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks and other market commentators continued to include GOOGL among cloud and internet stocks positioned to benefit from AI-driven data center spending and digital demand growth.
• Positive Sentiment: Business and tech commentary also pointed to product and platform strengths, including Google Search setting records during the World Cup and Waymo planning more driverless-car expansion, which support the long-term growth narrative.
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet said it will begin disclosing which ads are generated with AI, a transparency move that may help trust and compliance but is unlikely to materially change near-term earnings.
• Neutral Sentiment: Britain moved to regulate Google as a critical cloud supplier to protect financial stability; the change adds oversight, but it also underscores the importance of Google Cloud rather than signaling a fundamental business setback.
• Neutral Sentiment: Reuters reported that Google is appealing an Indian ads-related trademark ruling, a legal issue that could create some noise but does not yet appear to be a major stock-moving event.
• Neutral Sentiment: Recent short-interest data was effectively flat at zero shares reported, offering little actionable signal for traders.
• Negative Sentiment: One Reuters-linked report said Google and OpenAI provided AI services to Singapore-based subsidiaries of Chinese groups on the Pentagon blacklist, which could raise regulatory scrutiny and geopolitical concerns.
• Negative Sentiment: Technical commentary noted Alphabet is testing a key resistance zone after a recovery, suggesting the stock may need a fresh catalyst to extend its move higher.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on GOOGL. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and set a $450.00 target price (up from $375.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $425.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Loop Capital boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $355.00 to $490.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Dbs Bank raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $460.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $413.92.

Alphabet Price Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $357.18 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.33 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.24, a PEG ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.24. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $176.48 and a 1 year high of $408.61. The business has a 50-day moving average of $372.61 and a 200-day moving average of $336.44. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.64 by $2.47. The business had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $106.98 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.32 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th were issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.71%.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc is the holding company created in 2015 to organize Google and a portfolio of businesses developing technologies beyond Google’s core internet services. Its principal operations are led by Google, which builds and operates consumer-facing products such as Google Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Workspace, as well as advertising platforms (Google Ads and AdSense) that historically generate the majority of its revenue. Google also develops consumer hardware (Pixel phones, Nest smart-home devices, Chromecast) and developer and distribution platforms such as Google Play.

Beyond Google’s consumer and advertising businesses, Alphabet invests in enterprise and infrastructure offerings through Google Cloud, which provides cloud computing, data analytics and productivity services to businesses and institutions.