Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Down 2.2% on Insider Selling

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s share price fell 2.2% during trading on Tuesday after an insider sold shares in the company. The company traded as low as $161.36 and last traded at $161.47. 4,307,362 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 79% from the average session volume of 20,067,459 shares. The stock had previously closed at $165.11.

Specifically, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.44, for a total transaction of $109,420.08. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 32,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,136,807.48. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on GOOG shares. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Wolfe Research raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Rosenblatt Securities lowered Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $182.86.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a current ratio of 2.08. The company has a market cap of $1.96 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.48, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.05. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $173.69 and a 200-day moving average price of $165.59.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $84.22 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.44 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.50%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 12.27%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Capital International Investors lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.3% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,716,562 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,355,724,000 after purchasing an additional 7,470,042 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 19.7% during 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 during the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.2% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 45,731,826 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,963,128,000 after acquiring an additional 979,083 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 35,558,778 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,414,179,000 after acquiring an additional 684,968 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $4,101,040,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.