Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Director Sells $284,700.00 in Stock

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.80, for a total transaction of $284,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 21,824 shares in the company, valued at $4,142,195.20. This represents a 6.43 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.5 %

GOOG opened at $192.29 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $184.55 and a 200 day moving average of $174.49. The company has a market cap of $2.35 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $131.55 and a 12 month high of $202.88. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 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 company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.55 EPS. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 10.61%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. M&G PLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at $2,240,000. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 14.4% in the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 116,776 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $19,642,000 after purchasing an additional 14,738 shares during the period. Metis Global Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 301,980 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $50,488,000 after purchasing an additional 4,292 shares during the period. Stevens Capital Management LP raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 172.9% during the 3rd quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP now owns 91,237 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $15,254,000 after buying an additional 57,810 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Verdence Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 10.2% in the third quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 63,545 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,624,000 after acquiring an additional 5,892 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on GOOG. Citizens Jmp lowered shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $200.56.

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.