Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Purchases New Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 1,887,909 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $667,055,000. Alphabet makes up about 2.0% of Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio’s holdings, making the stock its 8th biggest holding.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 421,013,782 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $132,114,125,000 after purchasing an additional 8,128,234 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 1.4% in the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 369,922,502 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $130,704,718,000 after purchasing an additional 5,164,200 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Alphabet by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 187,102,863 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $58,712,878,000 after purchasing an additional 953,790 shares during the last quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co grew its holdings in Alphabet by 38,409.2% during the fourth quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 179,836,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,643,262,000 after purchasing an additional 179,369,280 shares during the period. Finally, J. Stern & Co. LLP grew its holdings in Alphabet by 28,482.8% during the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 112,091,870 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $35,174,429,000 after purchasing an additional 111,699,704 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $420.00 target price (down from $435.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Truist Financial dropped their price target on Alphabet from $430.00 to $420.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $475.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus set a $420.00 price objective on Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $455.00 to $465.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $415.55.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Marsida Saraci sold 449 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $333.20, for a total transaction of $149,606.80. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 27,386 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,125,015.20. This represents a 1.61% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 82 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $337.71, for a total transaction of $27,692.22. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 18,995 shares in the company, valued at $6,414,801.45. This represents a 0.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 451,925 shares of company stock valued at $12,371,544. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google DeepMind is reportedly preparing to release Gemini 3.8 Flash as early as this week. Internal testing suggests the model narrows Google’s coding-performance gap with OpenAI and Anthropic, potentially improving Alphabet’s position in enterprise AI and software development. New Google AI Model Said to Narrow Gap on Coding Ability
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet-owned Waymo launched public robotaxi service in Denver, San Diego and Tampa, expanding its commercial operations to 14 U.S. cities. The rollout strengthens Alphabet’s long-term autonomous-driving opportunity as competition with Amazon’s Zoox and Tesla intensifies. Waymo accelerates robotaxi expansion
• Positive Sentiment: Google signed a 396-megawatt geothermal power agreement with Fervo Energy, supporting reliable, carbon-free electricity for data-center growth and its AI infrastructure strategy. Fervo signs geothermal power deal with Google
• Neutral Sentiment: Berkshire Hathaway made Alphabet its third-largest holding after reducing Bank of America exposure. The move provides a high-profile vote of confidence, but commentary questioning whether Alphabet is fully valued limits its immediate impact. Alphabet becomes Berkshire’s third-largest holding
• Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned that Meta’s AI advertising products and OpenAI’s rapidly growing ad business could threaten Google Search’s advertising dominance and future ad growth. Competition threatens Google Search advertising
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet’s planned AI infrastructure spending—reportedly potentially reaching $205 billion this year—is raising concerns about depreciation, free cash flow and operating margins despite strong cloud and AI-driven revenue growth. Big Tech AI spending and depreciation concerns
• Negative Sentiment: EU regulators are examining Google’s proposed AI-search publisher opt-out, while a reported £260 million U.K. app-store settlement underscores continuing antitrust and regulatory exposure. EU regulators examine Google AI-search opt-out

Alphabet Stock Down 1.0%

Alphabet stock opened at $332.03 on Wednesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $206.96 and a 1-year high of $404.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.06 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.68, a P/E/G ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $347.23 and a 200 day simple moving average of $340.34.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $9.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.87 by $6.24. Alphabet had a return on equity of 51.32% and a net margin of 54.77%.The firm had revenue of $119.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $116.53 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.31 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 24.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 7th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 4.42%.

About Alphabet

Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) is a multinational technology holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Formed in 2015 through a corporate restructuring of Google, Alphabet serves as the parent to Google LLC and a portfolio of businesses collectively known as “Other Bets.” Google was originally founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Alphabet is led by CEO Sundar Pichai, who oversees Google and the broader company while the founders remain prominent shareholders and influential figures in the company’s history.

Alphabet’s core business centers on internet search and advertising, with Google Search and the company’s ad platforms (including Google Ads and AdSense) generating the majority of revenue by connecting advertisers with consumers worldwide.