Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Trading Down 0.1% Following Insider Selling

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) fell 0.1% during trading on Tuesday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock traded as low as $191.68 and last traded at $192.19. 2,727,792 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 81% from the average session volume of 14,674,706 shares. The stock had previously closed at $192.29.

Specifically, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.80, for a total value of $284,700.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 21,824 shares in the company, valued at $4,142,195.20. This trade represents a 6.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on GOOG. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $200.56.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $184.55 and its 200-day moving average price is $174.49. The company has a market cap of $2.35 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.49, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.55 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 0.3% during the second quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 295,320 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $54,168,000 after acquiring an additional 927 shares in the last quarter. TMD Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 0.8% during the second quarter. TMD Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,328 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,078,000 after acquiring an additional 87 shares in the last quarter. Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 22.9% during the second quarter. Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC now owns 101,423 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $18,603,000 after acquiring an additional 18,893 shares in the last quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 7.3% in the second quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC now owns 140,844 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $25,834,000 after buying an additional 9,613 shares during the period. Finally, Stolper Co increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% in the second quarter. Stolper Co now owns 49,756 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $9,126,000 after buying an additional 902 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

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.