Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock Price Down 1.7% – Here’s Why

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s stock price traded down 1.7% on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $161.12 and last traded at $162.86. 7,099,097 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 64% from the average session volume of 19,809,730 shares. The stock had previously closed at $165.70.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Wolfe Research raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Pivotal Research assumed coverage on Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $215.00 target price on the stock. UBS Group lowered their target price on Alphabet from $204.00 to $187.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. TD Cowen boosted their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, DA Davidson raised Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $186.90.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.1 %

The company has a fifty day moving average of $162.89 and a two-hundred day moving average of $169.03. 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 capitalization of $2.01 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.22 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.44 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.64 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 9th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 11.48%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $182.84, for a total value of $4,113,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,204,885 shares in the company, valued at approximately $403,141,173.40. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.84, for a total value of $230,804.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,183 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,927,257.72. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $182.84, for a total value of $4,113,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,204,885 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $403,141,173.40. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 216,092 shares of company stock worth $35,644,136 over the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Capital International Investors grew its position in Alphabet by 9.3% in 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 acquiring an additional 7,470,042 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position 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 valued at $12,815,986,000 after acquiring an additional 13,876,534 shares during the period. Capital World Investors grew its position in 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 position in 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 valued at $5,414,179,000 after acquiring an additional 684,968 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in Alphabet by 4.5% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 14,657,421 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,688,743,000 after acquiring an additional 636,008 shares during the period. 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.