Insider Selling: Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Director Sells 10,500 Shares of Stock

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.78, for a total transaction of $1,898,190.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 330,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $59,741,643.48. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL traded up $0.51 during trading on Friday, reaching $171.62. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 12,433,414 shares, compared to its average volume of 27,154,836. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $126.93 and a 12 month high of $191.75. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $162.32 and a 200-day moving average of $168.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a current ratio of 1.95. The firm has a market cap of $2.11 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.55 EPS. Research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 10.61%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. New Hampshire Trust raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. New Hampshire Trust now owns 43,714 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,963,000 after purchasing an additional 1,132 shares during the period. Berkshire Money Management Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet during the 1st quarter valued at about $359,000. Schneider Downs Wealth Management Advisors LP grew its holdings in Alphabet by 58.4% during the 1st quarter. Schneider Downs Wealth Management Advisors LP now owns 6,374 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $962,000 after buying an additional 2,351 shares in the last quarter. Trinity Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.5% in the third quarter. Trinity Financial Advisors LLC now owns 4,423 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $771,000 after buying an additional 190 shares in the last quarter. Finally, StoneCrest Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.7% in the third quarter. StoneCrest Wealth Management Inc. now owns 21,509 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,567,000 after buying an additional 140 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. KeyCorp lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. DA Davidson initiated coverage on Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $170.00 price objective for the company. Bank of America raised their target price on Alphabet from $206.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Scotiabank raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $205.51.

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.