Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Trading Down 0.8% – Should You Sell?

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) dropped 0.8% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $155.02 and last traded at $157.36. Approximately 4,150,951 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 79% from the average daily volume of 19,335,964 shares. The stock had previously closed at $158.68.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on GOOG. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Scotiabank upped their price target on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. UBS Group dropped their target price on Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 11th. KeyCorp cut their target price on Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Westpark Capital began coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $210.00 price target for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $208.71.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.9 %

The company has a market capitalization of $1.90 trillion, a P/E ratio of 19.33, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.04. The business has a fifty day moving average of $169.17 and a 200-day moving average of $177.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (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 anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. This represents a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 115,663 shares of company stock valued at $20,286,447 over the last three months. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,024,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,843,149,000 after acquiring an additional 264,962 shares during the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in Alphabet in the third quarter worth $166,000. McIlrath & Eck LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 12.9% during the third quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 13,575 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,270,000 after purchasing an additional 1,546 shares in the last quarter. Passumpsic Savings Bank purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the third quarter valued at $263,000. Finally, Advisory Resource Group lifted its position in Alphabet by 8.7% during the third quarter. Advisory Resource Group now owns 10,277 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,718,000 after purchasing an additional 822 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% 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.