Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Down 1.3% – Here’s What Happened

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s stock price traded down 1.3% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $177.88 and last traded at $178.18. 3,744,915 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 81% from the average session volume of 19,509,297 shares. The stock had previously closed at $180.49.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently commented on GOOG. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. DA Davidson upgraded Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Scotiabank began coverage on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, October 11th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Five 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.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $200.56.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $2.13 trillion, a P/E ratio of 23.06, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $167.01 and a 200-day simple moving average of $171.65.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.39 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.55 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 10.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total transaction of $75,437.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 16,490 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,820,779.40. This trade represents a 2.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 21,467 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.35, for a total transaction of $3,442,233.45. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 39,334 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,307,206.90. This represents a 35.31 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 206,795 shares of company stock worth $34,471,141 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 5.2% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 114,802,133 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,193,768,000 after buying an additional 5,655,022 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 103,557,486 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $17,247,208,000 after acquiring an additional 259,213 shares during the period. Capital International Investors grew its holdings in Alphabet by 9.3% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,716,562 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,355,724,000 after acquiring an additional 7,470,042 shares during the period. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 45,731,826 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,963,128,000 after purchasing an additional 979,083 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 35,558,778 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,414,179,000 after purchasing an additional 684,968 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.