Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Short Interest Down 5.9% in May

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest during the month of May. As of May 31st, there was short interest totalling 36,720,000 shares, a decline of 5.9% from the May 15th total of 39,030,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 20,550,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.8 days.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total value of $508,150.26. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 144,685 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,566,519.45. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.79, for a total value of $105,566.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,532,870.36. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total transaction of $508,150.26. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 144,685 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,566,519.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 135,958 shares of company stock valued at $22,383,553 over the last three months. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $4,101,040,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 19.7% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 84,171,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,815,986,000 after purchasing an additional 13,876,534 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter worth about $1,378,708,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $11,600,970,000. Finally, Capital International Investors lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.3% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,716,562 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,355,724,000 after purchasing an additional 7,470,042 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Alphabet Stock Down 1.3 %

GOOG stock opened at $176.45 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $170.85 and a 200 day moving average of $153.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.18 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a quick ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. Alphabet has a 52 week low of $115.83 and a 52 week high of $182.08.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $80.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $78.75 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 25.90% and a return on equity of 29.52%. The business’s revenue was up 15.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.17 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 7.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a — dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 10th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 12.27%.

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.