Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Trading Down 0.5%

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) dropped 0.5% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as low as $176.49 and last traded at $177.40. Approximately 3,170,785 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 85% from the average daily volume of 21,138,891 shares. The stock had previously closed at $178.37.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOG has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $165.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $165.67.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.3 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.15 and a quick ratio of 2.15. The company has a market cap of $2.18 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.01. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $170.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $153.13.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.38. Alphabet had a net margin of 25.90% and a return on equity of 29.52%. The company had revenue of $80.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $78.75 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.17 earnings per share. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a — dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 10th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 12.27%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 12,084 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.19, for a total value of $1,826,979.96. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 48,717 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,365,523.23. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 12,084 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.19, for a total value of $1,826,979.96. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 48,717 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,365,523.23. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.92, for a total transaction of $266,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 3,727 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $663,107.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 135,958 shares of company stock valued at $22,383,553. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 11.3% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 95,941,129 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,649,838,000 after purchasing an additional 9,703,425 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in Alphabet by 9.3% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,716,562 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,355,724,000 after buying an additional 7,470,042 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in Alphabet by 2.3% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,269,184 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,550,942,000 after buying an additional 1,275,060 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in Alphabet by 2.2% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 45,731,826 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,963,128,000 after buying an additional 979,083 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in Alphabet by 2.0% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 35,558,778 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,414,179,000 after buying an additional 684,968 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.