Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Trading Down 0.1% on Insider Selling

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s stock price traded down 0.1% on Tuesday after an insider sold shares in the company. The company traded as low as $172.53 and last traded at $172.79. 4,628,239 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 76% from the average session volume of 19,482,955 shares. The stock had previously closed at $172.98.

Specifically, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total value of $232,950.47. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 23,515 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,007,191.15. This represents a 5.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Pivotal Research upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $200.56.

Alphabet Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock has a market cap of $2.12 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.02. The company’s 50-day moving average is $170.37 and its 200-day moving average is $171.78.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.55 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 10.61%.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth approximately $9,181,000. Boulder Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth approximately $339,000. Oriental Harbor Investment Fund acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth approximately $80,656,000. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 32.4% during the third quarter. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. now owns 19,000 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,177,000 after buying an additional 4,648 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Asset Advisors Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 48.4% during the third quarter. Asset Advisors Investment Management LLC now owns 3,967 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $663,000 after purchasing an additional 1,293 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.