John Hennessy Sells 600 Shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Director John Hennessy sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $308.19, for a total transaction of $184,914.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 3,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,206,872.04. This represents a 13.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Alphabet Stock Down 3.2%

Alphabet stock traded down $9.85 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $296.72. 43,812,253 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 43,504,144. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $286.56 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $232.35. The company has a market cap of $3.58 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.26, a PEG ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a current ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $328.83.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.00% and a net margin of 32.23%.The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.90 billion. On average, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 8th were paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.28%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet in the second quarter valued at about $31,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 36.4% in the 2nd quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the period. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth about $53,000. iSAM Funds UK Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth about $53,000. Finally, Corsicana & Co. bought a new stake in Alphabet in the third quarter worth $54,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Melius Research lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $255.00 in a report on Thursday, September 25th. Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on Alphabet from $260.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $315.00 target price (up previously from $250.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 1st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have issued a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $315.18.

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.