Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading Down 8.1% Following Analyst Downgrade

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) dropped 8.1% on Wednesday after Piper Sandler lowered their price target on the stock from $210.00 to $208.00. Piper Sandler currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as low as $188.03 and last traded at $189.64. Approximately 32,139,526 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 23% from the average daily volume of 26,173,271 shares. The stock had previously closed at $206.38.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Wolfe Research lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. DA Davidson upped their price target on Alphabet from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Robert W. Baird restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $205.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $210.95.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total value of $3,975,075.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,061,806 shares in the company, valued at approximately $364,259,266.02. This trade represents a 1.08 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total transaction of $232,950.47. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 23,515 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,007,191.15. This trade represents a 5.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 89,529 shares of company stock worth $16,600,078. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Maverick Capital Ltd. acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the second quarter worth $2,038,000. Matrix Private Capital Group LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.9% during the second quarter. Matrix Private Capital Group LLC now owns 6,046 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,101,000 after acquiring an additional 226 shares during the last quarter. Makena Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 31.6% in the 2nd quarter. Makena Capital Management LLC now owns 91,520 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $16,670,000 after acquiring an additional 21,997 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its position in Alphabet by 14.6% in the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 7,660,106 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,395,288,000 after purchasing an additional 975,341 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth about $610,000. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Down 7.3 %

The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $190.39 and its 200 day simple moving average is $174.40. The company has a market cap of $2.34 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.99.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.