Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Director John L. Hennessy Sells 700 Shares

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Director John L. Hennessy sold 700 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.00, for a total transaction of $115,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 29,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,838,460. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.

Alphabet Trading Up 2.3 %

GOOGL stock traded up $3.71 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $166.67. The company had a trading volume of 22,395,573 shares, compared to its average volume of 28,178,512. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $120.21 and a 52 week high of $191.75. The stock has a market cap of $2.06 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.56, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.05. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $175.61 and its 200 day moving average price is $162.69.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $70.60 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.44 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 9th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 12.27%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $195.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $170.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Monday, April 29th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Alphabet from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $203.74.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 497,874,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $75,144,172,000 after purchasing an additional 4,064,073 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $15,441,917,000. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in Alphabet by 14.4% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 57,803,291 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,724,251,000 after acquiring an additional 7,275,757 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 49,472,478 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,011,412,000 after acquiring an additional 238,403 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,220,857 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,316,902,000 after acquiring an additional 1,472,043 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently 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.