Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price Down 1.2% – What’s Next?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s stock price fell 1.2% during trading on Monday . The company traded as low as $187.36 and last traded at $189.77. 7,504,154 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 66% from the average session volume of 21,874,508 shares. The stock had previously closed at $192.04.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Loop Capital lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Bank of America restated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Robert W. Baird reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $205.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $208.15.

Alphabet Price Performance

The company’s 50-day moving average price is $182.62 and its 200-day moving average price is $172.95. 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 firm has a market cap of $2.33 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.22, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.98.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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. The business 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 quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.55 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total transaction of $3,239,868.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 43,981 shares in the company, valued at $8,471,620.22. The trade was a 27.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.23, for a total transaction of $473,929.82. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 26,349 shares in the company, valued at $4,406,343.27. This represents a 9.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 154,387 shares of company stock valued at $27,748,931. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Cooper Financial Group grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.6% during the fourth quarter. Cooper Financial Group now owns 68,368 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,942,000 after purchasing an additional 5,988 shares during the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.7% in the 4th quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 85,992 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $16,514,000 after purchasing an additional 7,602 shares during the period. QV Investors Inc. grew its stake in Alphabet by 21.6% during the 4th quarter. QV Investors Inc. now owns 85,280 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $16,144,000 after buying an additional 15,160 shares during the last quarter. Agate Pass Investment Management LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 7.1% during the fourth quarter. Agate Pass Investment Management LLC now owns 47,968 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,080,000 after buying an additional 3,163 shares during the period. Finally, Asset Allocation & Management Company LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 41.9% in the fourth quarter. Asset Allocation & Management Company LLC now owns 9,622 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,821,000 after buying an additional 2,842 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.