Short Interest in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Declines By 10.9%

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) was the target of a significant drop in short interest during the month of July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totalling 40,720,000 shares, a drop of 10.9% from the July 15th total of 45,710,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 17,730,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.3 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total transaction of $600,175.38. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 9 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,655.91. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.35, for a total value of $3,652,875.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,182,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $354,310,204.75. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total value 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 155,865 shares of company stock worth $27,137,693 over the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Capital International Investors increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.3% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,716,562 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,355,724,000 after acquiring an additional 7,470,042 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 19.7% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 84,171,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,815,986,000 after acquiring an additional 13,876,534 shares during the period. Capital World Investors increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 45,731,826 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,963,128,000 after acquiring an additional 979,083 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 35,558,778 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,414,179,000 after acquiring an additional 684,968 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $4,101,040,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG opened at $167.48 on Monday. Alphabet has a 12 month low of $121.46 and a 12 month high of $193.31. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $177.37 and a 200-day moving average price of $163.96. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm has a market cap of $2.07 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.27, a P/E/G ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. The firm had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.22 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.44 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Alphabet will post 7.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th will be given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 12.27%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Rosenblatt Securities cut Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. TD Cowen upped their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $182.86.

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.