Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading Down 1% on Analyst Downgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shares dropped 1% on Monday after Susquehanna lowered their price target on the stock from $225.00 to $220.00. Susquehanna currently has a positive rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as low as $159.96 and last traded at $160.41. Approximately 9,994,661 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 65% from the average daily volume of 28,219,684 shares. The stock had previously closed at $161.96.

A number of other equities research analysts have also commented on GOOGL. DA Davidson dropped their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday. DZ Bank downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $198.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Piper Sandler cut their target price on Alphabet from $208.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $198.63.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total transaction of $33,106.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 7,813 shares in the company, valued at $1,293,285.89. This trade represents a 2.50 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. This trade represents a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 148,163 shares of company stock valued at $25,361,647. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,283,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,871,384,000 after purchasing an additional 337,031 shares during the period. Passumpsic Savings Bank lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 38.0% in the 3rd quarter. Passumpsic Savings Bank now owns 4,700 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $779,000 after acquiring an additional 1,294 shares during the period. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% in the third quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 37,379 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,199,000 after acquiring an additional 202 shares in the last quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 6.0% during the third quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,306 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $382,000 after acquiring an additional 130 shares during the period. Finally, Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd raised its holdings in Alphabet by 19.2% during the third quarter. Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd now owns 137,669 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $22,703,000 after purchasing an additional 22,169 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The stock’s 50-day moving average is $162.18 and its 200 day moving average is $175.62. The stock has a market cap of $1.95 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.86, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.53%. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

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.