Insider Selling: Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) CEO Sells 32,500 Shares of Stock

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares in the company, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $145.60 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.77 trillion, a P/E ratio of 18.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. 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 Inc. has a 52-week low of $145.38 and a 52-week high of $207.05. The company has a fifty day moving average of $175.15 and a 200-day moving average of $176.68.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.55%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.94%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Community Bank N.A. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 6.4% during the 4th quarter. Community Bank N.A. now owns 46,173 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,741,000 after acquiring an additional 2,790 shares during the period. Absolute Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 14.0% in the 4th quarter. Absolute Capital Management LLC now owns 2,096 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $401,000 after purchasing an additional 258 shares during the period. Permanent Capital Management LP bought a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $273,000. Glass Wealth Management Co LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. Glass Wealth Management Co LLC now owns 37,054 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,014,000 after purchasing an additional 1,580 shares during the period. Finally, Olistico Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.1% in the fourth quarter. Olistico Wealth LLC now owns 8,981 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,700,000 after purchasing an additional 746 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have weighed in on GOOGL shares. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on shares of Alphabet from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Westpark Capital raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating and set a $200.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $209.13.

About Alphabet

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.