Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading Down 0.2% on Insider Selling

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shares were down 0.2% during mid-day trading on Wednesday following insider selling activity. The stock traded as low as $184.00 and last traded at $184.91. Approximately 3,895,541 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 86% from the average daily volume of 28,364,176 shares. The stock had previously closed at $185.24.

Specifically, Director John L. Hennessy sold 800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.56, for a total value of $127,648.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,991 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,275,043.96. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total transaction of $600,175.38. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 9 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,655.91. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 800 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.56, for a total value of $127,648.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 7,991 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,275,043.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 123,788 shares of company stock worth $21,143,403. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on GOOGL. Susquehanna increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $170.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $155.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Truist Financial increased their target price on Alphabet from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $195.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $200.00 price objective (up previously from $160.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 26th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $193.66.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The business has a 50 day moving average of $174.46 and a 200-day moving average of $155.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a current ratio of 2.15. The company has a market capitalization of $2.30 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.49 by $0.40. The business had revenue of $80.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $66.04 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 25.90% and a return on equity of 29.52%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.17 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 10th were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 12.27%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $15,441,917,000. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in Alphabet by 14.4% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 57,803,291 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,724,251,000 after purchasing an additional 7,275,757 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 493,810,251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $68,980,354,000 after purchasing an additional 6,374,756 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 39,754.9% in the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 6,025,667 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $841,725,000 after purchasing an additional 6,010,548 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4,894.1% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 5,445,396 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,606,670,000 after purchasing an additional 5,336,359 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Company Profile

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.