Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Acquires New Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 477,300 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $67,266,000. Alphabet accounts for approximately 1.4% of Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings, making the stock its 9th biggest holding.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Totem Point Management LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 22.0% in the first quarter. Totem Point Management LLC now owns 3,171 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,857,000 after purchasing an additional 571 shares during the last quarter. Somerville Kurt F grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 10.3% during the first quarter. Somerville Kurt F now owns 118 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $330,000 after buying an additional 11 shares during the last quarter. BCK Partners Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter valued at $2,564,000. Hall Capital Management Co. Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 53.2% during the first quarter. Hall Capital Management Co. Inc. now owns 144 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $402,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fairfield Bush & CO. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 6.8% during the first quarter. Fairfield Bush & CO. now owns 3,370 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $9,412,000 after buying an additional 214 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $157.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total value of $94,769.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 27,920 shares in the company, valued at $4,009,032.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total value of $94,769.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 27,920 shares in the company, valued at $4,009,032.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Ruth Porat sold 48,077 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.22, for a total transaction of $6,597,125.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 1,777,106 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $243,854,485.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 251,339 shares of company stock worth $36,033,907. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.8 %

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $156.33 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.94 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.95, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a fifty day moving average of $146.73 and a 200 day moving average of $141.34. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $103.27 and a 1 year high of $161.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.10 and a quick ratio of 2.10.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $86.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $85.28 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 24.01% and a return on equity of 27.22%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 13.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.05 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 6.78 earnings per share for the current year.

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.