Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading Down 0.8% – Time to Sell?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shares dropped 0.8% on Thursday . The company traded as low as $192.38 and last traded at $193.95. Approximately 24,842,898 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 4% from the average daily volume of 23,971,379 shares. The stock had previously closed at $195.49.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the topic of several research reports. Scotiabank upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $204.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Roth Mkm boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $206.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Nine research 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $206.82.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $2.37 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.98. 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 business has a 50 day moving average price of $181.75 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $172.87.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.95, for a total transaction of $247,425.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 26,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,342,143.80. This trade represents a 5.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total value of $75,437.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 16,490 shares in the company, valued at $2,820,779.40. The trade was a 2.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 155,887 shares of company stock worth $27,996,356 over the last three months. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 43,005.6% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 18,743,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $31,086,250,000 after acquiring an additional 18,700,111 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 587.4% during the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 10,690,326 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,772,991,000 after acquiring an additional 9,135,056 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 116.4% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 8,670,225 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,437,957,000 after buying an additional 4,662,809 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 7.7% in the 3rd 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 during the period. Finally, Wulff Hansen & CO. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 18,810.2% in the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,434,260 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $807,700,000 after buying an additional 4,410,811 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.