Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Down 0.7%

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) were down 0.7% during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $177.20 and last traded at $177.61. Approximately 3,577,729 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 83% from the average daily volume of 21,088,803 shares. The stock had previously closed at $178.78.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently commented on GOOG shares. Oppenheimer lifted their price target 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 lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $165.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $165.67.

Alphabet Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 2.15, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The company’s fifty day moving average is $170.85 and its two-hundred day moving average is $153.29. The stock has a market cap of $2.18 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share 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 the consensus estimate of $78.75 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 25.90% and a return on equity of 29.52%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.17 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.92, for a total value of $266,880.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 3,727 shares in the company, valued at $663,107.84. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.92, for a total value of $266,880.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 3,727 shares in the company, valued at $663,107.84. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 12,084 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.19, for a total transaction of $1,826,979.96. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 48,717 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,365,523.23. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 135,958 shares of company stock worth $22,383,553 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of 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 lifted its position 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 acquiring an additional 7,470,042 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position 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 acquiring an additional 1,275,060 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its position 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 acquiring an additional 979,083 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position 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 acquiring an additional 684,968 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.