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

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Director John L. Hennessy sold 700 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.00, for a total transaction of $115,500.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 29,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,838,460. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $167.63 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $176.79 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $164.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.07 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.71, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $121.46 and a 12-month high of $193.31. 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 (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $84.22 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. The firm’s revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.44 EPS. Analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.62 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 9th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 12.27%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. SPC Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the second quarter valued at approximately $287,000. Granite Bay Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 8.4% during the 2nd quarter. Granite Bay Wealth Management LLC now owns 28,585 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,243,000 after acquiring an additional 2,219 shares during the period. Ted Buchan & Co acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $2,930,000. Advisory Alpha LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.2% in the 2nd quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC now owns 15,536 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,850,000 after acquiring an additional 1,310 shares during the last quarter. Finally, IMS Capital Management increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4.4% in the second quarter. IMS Capital Management now owns 33,745 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,702,000 after acquiring an additional 1,426 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on GOOG. Rosenblatt Securities downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Friday, June 28th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $182.86.

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.