Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Cuts Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky trimmed its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.6% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 512,251 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 13,520 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for 1.2% of Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings, making the stock its 9th largest position. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $160,744,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in GOOG. True Link Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $517,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 421,013,782 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $132,114,125,000 after acquiring an additional 8,128,234 shares during the period. Coquina Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,563,000. Strategent Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $217,000. Finally, Munich Reinsurance Co Stock Corp in Munich boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Munich Reinsurance Co Stock Corp in Munich now owns 340,804 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $107,200,000 after acquiring an additional 3,247 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Reported huge Anthropic commitment to Google Cloud — The Information/Reuters reported Anthropic has agreed to spend roughly $200 billion with Google Cloud over multiple years, a deal that would materially boost cloud bookings and long‑term revenue visibility. Anthropic commits $200B to Google Cloud (Reuters)
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts turning more bullish and lifting price targets — Multiple firms have raised targets (including a street‑high $515 note), citing AI upside, custom models and accelerating cloud monetization, supporting higher valuation multiples. Analyst $515 target (TipRanks)
• Positive Sentiment: Record highs and strong Q1 fundamentals — Investors are pricing in Q1 beats (EPS and revenue), 60%+ cloud growth and a ballooning cloud backlog that underpins multi‑year revenue conversion. That momentum is driving buying interest. Alphabet hits record highs (Yahoo)
• Positive Sentiment: Product / infrastructure moves could expand addressable market — Google moving to sell TPUs directly and scale AI compute options could accelerate revenue capture and challenge competitors in AI infrastructure. Google to sell TPUs directly (247WallSt)
• Neutral Sentiment: U.S. government access and stress‑testing of AI models — The administration expanded programs to let government scientists and agencies review unreleased models (including DeepMind) to assess risks; this is a mix of oversight and validation. US stress tests of AI models (Reuters)
• Neutral Sentiment: Capital markets: large euro bond sale with strong demand — Alphabet tapped the euro market with a multi‑tranche offering to fund AI infrastructure; strong order books reduce financing risk but also highlight heavy near‑term CapEx plans. Euro bond offering (Reuters)
• Negative Sentiment: Employee unrest and DoD/defense work — DeepMind staff have pushed for union recognition and protested military contracts; classified DoD engagements raise reputational and retention risks that could affect operations. DeepMind union vote over military deals (Business Insider)
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/privacy push in EU — A top Google scientist warned that EU proposals to share search data with rivals could expose user data, signaling potential regulatory headwinds and business model risk if rules tighten. EU data sharing concerns (Reuters)

Alphabet Trading Up 1.2%

Shares of GOOG opened at $384.34 on Wednesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $149.49 and a 1 year high of $388.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $313.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $309.58. The stock has a market cap of $4.65 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.32, a PEG ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.25.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $2.43. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. The firm had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $106.96 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.81 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 21.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 13.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th will be paid a $0.22 dividend. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 6.41%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOG has been the subject of several research reports. DZ Bank raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 16th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, April 20th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $348.00 target price (up from $345.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Wells Fargo & Company raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Finally, Scotiabank reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $450.00 target price (up from $400.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $362.73.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.65, for a total value of $348,232.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 3,581 shares in the company, valued at $1,187,638.65. This trade represents a 22.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.92, for a total value of $9,877,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,818,524 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $856,605,814.08. The trade was a 1.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 158,553 shares of company stock worth $47,951,856 in the last three months. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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.