Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Down 0.2% on Insider Selling

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) shares fell 0.2% during trading on Thursday following insider selling activity. The stock traded as low as $194.98 and last traded at $196.55. 3,454,009 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 76% from the average session volume of 14,476,620 shares. The stock had previously closed at $196.98.

Specifically, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total value of $550,702.88. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,468,029.04. This represents a 13.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.80, for a total value of $284,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 21,824 shares in the company, valued at $4,142,195.20. The trade was a 6.43 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on GOOG. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citizens Jmp downgraded Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $200.56.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.3 %

The company has a market capitalization of $2.38 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.79, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $185.32 and a 200 day moving average price of $174.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. Alphabet’s revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.55 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. FMR LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 114,802,133 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,193,768,000 after purchasing an additional 5,655,022 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 10.3% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 33,334,082 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,573,125,000 after acquiring an additional 3,113,395 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 65.9% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 6,294,332 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,052,349,000 after acquiring an additional 2,500,621 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its holdings in Alphabet by 27.8% during the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 7,499,245 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,375,512,000 after acquiring an additional 1,632,691 shares during the period. Finally, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund grew its holdings in Alphabet by 182.1% during the 3rd quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 2,526,055 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $422,331,000 after acquiring an additional 1,630,701 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is owned by 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.