Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Down 1.7% – Here’s What Happened

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) dropped 1.7% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $301.03 and last traded at $303.55. Approximately 24,612,240 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 30% from the average daily volume of 35,270,156 shares. The stock had previously closed at $308.70.

More Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet closed its largest-ever acquisition, buying cybersecurity firm Wiz for $32 billion, which strengthens Google Cloud’s security stack and revenue runway for cloud customers. Google completes $32B acquisition of Wiz
• Positive Sentiment: Canal+ signed a multi-year deal to use Google Cloud’s generative AI for production and recommendations — a commercial win that validates Google Cloud AI demand in media. Canal taps Google’s AI for video production, content recommendation
• Positive Sentiment: Google’s GFiber unit is selling a majority stake in a new fiber venture to Stonepeak/Astound and becoming a minority owner — this monetizes infrastructure, reduces capital exposure and shifts growth to partners. Google sells partial stake in fiber business, becomes minority owner of new venture
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst and market commentary see the recent pullback as a potential entry point: earnings strength, continued institutional inflows and upgrades support a constructive medium-term outlook. Alphabet’s Pullback May Be Opening a New Entry Point Earnings Growth & Price Strength Make Alphabet (GOOGL) a Stock to Watch
• Neutral Sentiment: PR/branding: Google named its new London HQ “Platform 37” — a cultural/marketing move that has little direct financial impact but supports talent/brand in a key market. Google names London office ‘Platform 37’ in a nod to railway neighbour, AI ‘Go’ match
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst caution: coverage highlighting that Google’s AI leadership is being tested introduces uncertainty around execution and competitive intensity, a mixed near-term signal for investors. Google’s AI Dominance Is Being Tested. Here’s What Investors Need to Know
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory risk: UK regulator warnings to tech firms to better protect young users (with deadlines) raise compliance costs and potential restrictions for ad/engagement products in Europe — a headwind for ad-driven revenue. Big tech given warning – and deadline – by UK regulator
• Negative Sentiment: Governance/expense concern: coverage on Sundar Pichai’s $692M compensation package tied to unprofitable “moonshots” may raise investor questions about pay-for-performance and long-term capital allocation. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai’s new $692 million compensation package hinges on the success of two Google moonshots that aren’t making any money

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $330.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. HSBC boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $335.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 2nd. New Street Research raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $330.00 to $380.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. China Renaissance raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $330.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $279.00 to $357.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $367.18.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $319.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $288.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.67 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.08, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.25. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. The firm had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 9th 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 is Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.77%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $302.99, for a total value of $33,934.88. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 18,418 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,580,469.82. This represents a 0.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $306.73, for a total transaction of $184,038.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 20,624 shares in the company, valued at $6,325,999.52. This represents a 2.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 2,112,493 shares of company stock worth $118,605,094. 11.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Norges Bank bought a new position in Alphabet in the second quarter valued at $21,944,208,000. Berkshire Hathaway Inc bought a new stake in Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $4,338,397,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 17,667.7% during 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. Cardano Risk Management B.V. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 855.3% in the 4th quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 14,525,280 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,546,413,000 after purchasing an additional 13,004,828 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 528,969,322 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $165,567,398,000 after purchasing an additional 12,531,695 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

About Alphabet

Alphabet Inc is the holding company created in 2015 to organize Google and a portfolio of businesses developing technologies beyond Google’s core internet services. Its principal operations are led by Google, which builds and operates consumer-facing products such as Google Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Workspace, as well as advertising platforms (Google Ads and AdSense) that historically generate the majority of its revenue. Google also develops consumer hardware (Pixel phones, Nest smart-home devices, Chromecast) and developer and distribution platforms such as Google Play.

Beyond Google’s consumer and advertising businesses, Alphabet invests in enterprise and infrastructure offerings through Google Cloud, which provides cloud computing, data analytics and productivity services to businesses and institutions.