Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading Down 1.8% – Here’s Why

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) were down 1.8% on Friday . The company traded as low as $172.18 and last traded at $172.39. Approximately 6,359,831 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 76% from the average daily volume of 27,027,539 shares. The stock had previously closed at $175.58.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on GOOGL. DA Davidson assumed coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $170.00 price target on the stock. Scotiabank raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Pivotal Research upped their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. China Renaissance raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have issued a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.90.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.8 %

The stock has a market cap of $2.11 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.03. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $165.61 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $170.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.85 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.55 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.46%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 10.61%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.66, for a total value of $3,772,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,159,885 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $362,126,319.10. This represents a 1.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.78, for a total value of $1,898,190.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 330,466 shares in the company, valued at $59,741,643.48. This trade represents a 3.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 206,795 shares of company stock valued at $34,471,141. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 43,005.6% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 18,743,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $31,086,250,000 after acquiring an additional 18,700,111 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 587.4% in the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 10,690,326 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,772,991,000 after purchasing an additional 9,135,056 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in shares of 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 period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 116.4% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 8,670,225 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,437,957,000 after buying an additional 4,662,809 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wulff Hansen & CO. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 18,810.2% in the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,434,260 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $807,700,000 after buying an additional 4,410,811 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.