Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Director John Hennessy Sells 600 Shares of Stock

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Director John Hennessy sold 600 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $308.19, for a total value of $184,914.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 3,916 shares in the company, valued at $1,206,872.04. The trade was a 13.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL traded up $5.47 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $302.19. The stock had a trading volume of 7,385,511 shares, compared to its average volume of 36,571,195. The company has a market cap of $3.65 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.75, a PEG ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.07. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $328.83. The business’s fifty day moving average is $286.56 and its two-hundred day moving average is $232.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.75.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 35.00%. As a group, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Investors of record on Monday, December 8th were given a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 8.28%.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Delta Asset Management LLC TN increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.6% in the third quarter. Delta Asset Management LLC TN now owns 6,153 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,496,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Second Line Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Second Line Capital LLC now owns 4,417 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,074,000 after buying an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Matisse Capital boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% in the third quarter. Matisse Capital now owns 14,814 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,601,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the period. Rialto Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Rialto Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,226 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $541,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the period. Finally, Hodges Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in Alphabet by 0.5% during the third quarter. Hodges Capital Management Inc. now owns 6,963 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,693,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on GOOGL shares. New Street Research lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $275.00 to $295.00 in a report on Friday, October 24th. Truist Financial set a $350.00 target price on Alphabet and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 5th. Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $343.00 price target (up from $280.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. DZ Bank reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $270.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have issued a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $315.18.

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.