Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading Down 0.1% After Insider Selling

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s stock price traded down 0.1% during mid-day trading on Tuesday following insider selling activity. The company traded as low as $190.42 and last traded at $190.90. 4,095,828 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 81% from the average session volume of 21,477,357 shares. The stock had previously closed at $191.01.

Specifically, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 21,824 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,142,195.20. This represents a 6.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on GOOGL. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $210.00 target price (up previously from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Citizens Jmp cut shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Bank of America reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $208.15.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $183.05 and its 200 day simple moving average is $172.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. The company has a market capitalization of $2.34 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.98.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.55 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.42%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 10.61%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 222,555,548 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $36,910,838,000 after acquiring an additional 743,369 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 134,030,679 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $22,154,651,000 after buying an additional 2,626,431 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 7.7% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,559,240,000 after buying an additional 4,567,275 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.5% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 49,857,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,268,933,000 after buying an additional 1,237,385 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.4% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 37,233,079 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,175,106,000 after buying an additional 523,416 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Company Profile

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.