Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading Down 1.3% Following Insider Selling

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s stock price traded down 1.3% during mid-day trading on Tuesday after an insider sold shares in the company. The company traded as low as $156.82 and last traded at $157.04. 7,321,344 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 74% from the average session volume of 28,143,307 shares. The stock had previously closed at $159.07.

Specifically, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.90, for a total transaction of $32,380.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 7,613 shares in the company, valued at $1,232,544.70. This trade represents a 2.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on GOOGL shares. Westpark Capital raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $205.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Roth Mkm reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, KeyCorp lowered their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $202.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $205.49.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.4 %

The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm has a market cap of $1.91 trillion, a P/E ratio of 19.56, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $167.87 and its two-hundred day moving average is $176.28.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. Analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $47,025,322,000 after purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of 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 last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth about $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in Alphabet by 8.3% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $18,672,198,000 after purchasing an additional 7,574,417 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in Alphabet by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,635,878,000 after purchasing an additional 10,037,685 shares in the last quarter. 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.