Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading Down 2.4% – Time to Sell?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s share price traded down 2.4% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $308.60 and last traded at $312.43. 39,383,662 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 7% from the average session volume of 36,717,957 shares. The stock had previously closed at $320.21.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Moffett Nathanson upped their price target on Alphabet from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $265.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and set a $375.00 price target (up from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, December 1st. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $270.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Phillip Securities raised shares of Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have issued a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $314.22.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.75. The company has a market cap of $3.73 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.07. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $283.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $229.18.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. The business had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.00% and a net margin of 32.23%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $319.50, for a total transaction of $10,383,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,272,119 shares in the company, valued at approximately $725,942,020.50. This represents a 1.41% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.06, for a total value of $168,036.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 4,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,264,750.96. This trade represents a 11.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 226,128 shares of company stock valued at $61,326,372. 11.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $21,944,208,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at $4,317,606,000. Berkshire Hathaway Inc bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at $4,338,397,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 17,667.7% during the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 15,245,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,686,640,000 after buying an additional 15,159,273 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 28.0% during the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,910,542,000 after buying an additional 11,605,785 shares in 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.