Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock Price Down 0.5% Following Insider Selling

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) fell 0.5% during trading on Thursday following insider selling activity. The company traded as low as $165.37 and last traded at $166.44. 2,412,319 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 88% from the average session volume of 19,947,709 shares. The stock had previously closed at $167.31.

Specifically, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.84, for a total transaction of $230,804.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,183 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,927,257.72. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.07, for a total transaction of $3,759,075.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,129,306 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $355,743,153.42. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,802 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, September 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.47, for a total value of $2,780,226.94. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 43,999 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,280,514.53. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Pivotal Research initiated coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday. They set a “buy” rating and a $215.00 price target for the company. Rosenblatt Securities downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Friday, June 28th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Oppenheimer cut their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $183.75.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The company has a 50-day moving average price of $163.57 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $168.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.06 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.53, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a quick ratio of 2.08, a current ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $84.22 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.44 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th were given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 12.27%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of GOOG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 19.7% in 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 buying an additional 13,876,534 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter valued at approximately $1,378,708,000. Capital International Investors boosted its stake 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 valued at $13,355,724,000 after purchasing an additional 7,470,042 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in Alphabet by 51.8% during the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 6,416,150 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $976,923,000 after purchasing an additional 2,190,795 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vima LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 178,253.1% in the 1st quarter. Vima LLC now owns 2,001,122 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $304,691,000 after buying an additional 2,000,000 shares during the period. 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.