Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price Down 1% – Here’s What Happened

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shares fell 1% during trading on Monday . The company traded as low as $189.12 and last traded at $190.82. 4,466,700 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 84% from the average session volume of 27,459,008 shares. The stock had previously closed at $192.76.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on GOOGL shares. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. China Renaissance raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $205.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $206.69.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.0 %

The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $178.64 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $172.16. The firm has a market cap of $2.32 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $72.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.55 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.42%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.30, for a total value of $3,741,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,106,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $350,361,837.80. This represents a 1.06 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.23, for a total transaction of $473,929.82. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 26,349 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,406,343.27. This represents a 9.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 137,588 shares of company stock worth $24,473,081. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Alphabet by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 222,555,548 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $36,910,838,000 after purchasing an additional 743,369 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 2.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 134,030,679 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $22,154,651,000 after acquiring an additional 2,626,431 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,559,240,000 after acquiring an additional 4,567,275 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 49,857,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,268,933,000 after purchasing an additional 1,237,385 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% during 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 purchasing an additional 238,403 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

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.