Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Down 0.7%

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s share price traded down 0.7% on Friday . The company traded as low as $184.30 and last traded at $185.61. 3,995,404 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 81% from the average session volume of 21,157,930 shares. The stock had previously closed at $186.86.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOG has been the topic of several research reports. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Rosenblatt Securities cut Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price target for the company. in a report on Friday. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $167.86.

Alphabet Price Performance

The business has a fifty day moving average of $174.40 and a 200 day moving average of $155.68. 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 stock has a market cap of $2.27 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.13, a P/E/G ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.38. Alphabet had a return on equity of 29.52% and a net margin of 25.90%. The company had revenue of $80.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $78.75 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.17 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 15.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a — dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 10th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 12.27%.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total value of $508,150.26. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 144,685 shares in the company, valued at $22,566,519.45. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.67, for a total value of $3,502,575.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,325,513 shares in the company, valued at approximately $362,012,608.71. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 144,685 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,566,519.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 146,284 shares of company stock worth $24,534,393. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Becker Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Alphabet by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Becker Capital Management Inc. now owns 39,385 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,193,000 after acquiring an additional 697 shares during the period. Akaris Global Partners LP grew its position in Alphabet by 61.7% in the 3rd quarter. Akaris Global Partners LP now owns 164,000 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $21,623,000 after buying an additional 62,600 shares in the last quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 128.1% during the 3rd quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 106,428 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,520,000 after buying an additional 59,778 shares during the period. AXQ Capital LP bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth about $804,000. Finally, Evergreen Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.8% in the third quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 234,565 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $30,927,000 after acquiring an additional 1,810 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.