Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Down 1.1% After Insider Selling

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s stock price traded down 1.1% during trading on Thursday following insider selling activity. The stock traded as low as $288.67 and last traded at $289.45. 59,715,294 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 65% from the average session volume of 36,140,203 shares. The stock had previously closed at $292.81.

Specifically, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $288.26, for a total transaction of $800,786.28. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 11,739 shares in the company, valued at $3,383,884.14. This trade represents a 19.14% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.06, for a total transaction of $168,036.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 4,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,264,750.96. The trade was a 11.73% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOGL has been the subject of several recent research reports. Tigress Financial increased their price target on Alphabet from $240.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $320.00 price target (up previously from $245.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $343.00 price objective (up from $280.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have assigned a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $305.33.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.1%

The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $260.23 and its 200-day moving average is $211.57. The company has a market cap of $3.49 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.55, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 36.08%. The business had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.90 billion. On average, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.28%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $21,944,208,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 1st quarter valued at $4,317,606,000. Berkshire Hathaway Inc purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth $4,338,397,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 17,667.7% in the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 15,245,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,686,640,000 after purchasing an additional 15,159,273 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 2.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $78,839,544,000 after purchasing an additional 14,307,345 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.