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

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) were down 0.2% during trading on Monday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock traded as low as $156.60 and last traded at $157.17. Approximately 4,886,054 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 82% from the average daily volume of 27,648,414 shares. The stock had previously closed at $157.46.

Specifically, Director John L. Hennessy sold 800 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $153.75, for a total value of $123,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 28,524 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,385,565. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total transaction of $429,587.55. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,182 shares in the company, valued at $4,421,948.46. The disclosure for this sale can be found here.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $208.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $204.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $196.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $206.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $201.08.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $1.95 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.24, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 2.08. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $166.84 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $165.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $70.60 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.44 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 12.27%.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 0.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 497,874,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $75,144,172,000 after buying an additional 4,064,073 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $15,441,917,000. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake 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 buying an additional 7,275,757 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in Alphabet by 0.5% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 49,472,478 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $9,011,412,000 after buying an additional 238,403 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,178,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,310,925,000 after buying an additional 1,429,261 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.