Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading Down 0.2% Following Insider Selling

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shares traded down 0.2% during mid-day trading on Monday following insider selling activity. The stock traded as low as $156.60 and last traded at $157.17. 4,886,054 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 82% from the average session volume of 27,648,414 shares. The stock had previously closed at $157.46.

Specifically, Director John L. Hennessy sold 800 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.75, for a total value of $123,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 28,524 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,385,565. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total value of $429,587.55. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,182 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,421,948.46. The disclosure for this sale can be found here.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on GOOGL. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Alphabet from $205.00 to $190.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $206.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. TD Securities raised their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Wolfe Research began coverage on Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $240.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $220.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $201.08.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $166.25 and a 200-day simple moving average of $165.17. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock has a market cap of $1.97 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.44, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. The firm had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $70.60 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.44 EPS. Analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 9th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 12.27%.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 497,874,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $75,144,172,000 after acquiring an additional 4,064,073 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $15,441,917,000. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 14.4% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 57,803,291 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,724,251,000 after buying an additional 7,275,757 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 49,472,478 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $9,011,412,000 after buying an additional 238,403 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,178,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,310,925,000 after buying an additional 1,429,261 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

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.