Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Director Sells 82 Shares of Stock

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Director Frances Arnold sold 82 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $337.71, for a total value of $27,692.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 18,995 shares in the company, valued at $6,414,801.45. This represents a 0.43% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Frances Arnold also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Thursday, July 30th, Frances Arnold sold 82 shares of Alphabet stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $333.39, for a total value of $27,337.98.
• On Tuesday, June 30th, Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of Alphabet stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $351.28, for a total value of $39,343.36.

Alphabet Stock Down 2.1%

GOOGL traded down $7.24 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $339.35. 33,432,417 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 31,542,016. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $206.20 and a 1 year high of $408.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.64 and a current ratio of 2.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.15 trillion, a PE ratio of 17.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $349.62 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $341.86.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $6.22. Alphabet had a net margin of 54.77% and a return on equity of 51.32%. The company had revenue of $119.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $117.07 billion. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.5 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 7th will be paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 4.42%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 528,969,322 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $165,567,398,000 after acquiring an additional 12,531,695 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $40,524,841,000 after purchasing an additional 4,008,374 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 146,193,037 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $45,625,595,000 after purchasing an additional 2,666,676 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $30,534,239,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 69,108,183 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $21,630,861,000 after buying an additional 3,218,852 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Citizens analyst Andrew Boone reportedly expects Alphabet to reach a new all-time high over the next 12 months, supporting the view that the company’s AI-driven rally and earnings growth still have room to continue. Wall Street analyst sets Google price target for next 12 months
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s cloud business delivered exceptionally strong growth, while its valuation appears more restrained than some other AI leaders. Investors are assessing whether cloud expansion and AI monetization can justify the company’s historic capital-investment program. One Mag 7 stock to watch
• Positive Sentiment: Indian regulator approval for the IPO of Jio Platforms could create a potential valuation event for Alphabet’s investment in the Meta- and Google-backed telecom company, although the financial benefit is not yet quantified. Jio Platforms receives IPO approval
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts debated whether the market’s reaction to Alphabet’s latest earnings was excessive. The discussion highlighted strong results but also Google’s talent losses and the possibility that Gemini 4 could materially change investor sentiment. Was the market’s reaction to Alphabet’s earnings overblown?
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet and Amazon are both funding record AI infrastructure spending. Alphabet’s strong balance sheet and margins are advantages, but investors remain focused on whether returns from that spending will arrive quickly enough. Will Amazon or Alphabet better digest AI capex?
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet faces renewed European antitrust pressure after changing search rules to avoid a potential penalty equal to 10% of revenue. The concessions could weaken search economics and competitive flexibility even though they avoid an immediate fine. How Google avoided a 10% revenue fine
• Negative Sentiment: Google’s £260 million U.K. app-store settlement added to concerns about regulatory costs and possible pressure on its app-distribution business. Google’s U.K. app-store settlement
• Negative Sentiment: Meta’s roughly $60 billion AI investment is raising fears that new AI products could challenge Google Search and reshape digital advertising, creating a longer-term threat to Alphabet’s core business. Meta’s AI investment could challenge Google Search

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently commented on GOOGL. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $445.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Citigroup reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, May 4th. President Capital raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $375.00 to $465.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company set a $411.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $420.19.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc is the holding company created in 2015 to organize Google and a portfolio of businesses developing technologies beyond Google’s core internet services. Its principal operations are led by Google, which builds and operates consumer-facing products such as Google Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Workspace, as well as advertising platforms (Google Ads and AdSense) that historically generate the majority of its revenue. Google also develops consumer hardware (Pixel phones, Nest smart-home devices, Chromecast) and developer and distribution platforms such as Google Play.

Beyond Google’s consumer and advertising businesses, Alphabet invests in enterprise and infrastructure offerings through Google Cloud, which provides cloud computing, data analytics and productivity services to businesses and institutions.