Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Down 7.1% Following Analyst Downgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shares traded down 7.1% on Thursday after UBS Group lowered their price target on the stock from $400.00 to $379.00. UBS Group currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as low as $314.90 and last traded at $317.69. 68,861,658 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 112% from the average session volume of 32,516,115 shares. The stock had previously closed at $342.09.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on GOOGL. Mizuho lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $420.00 to $460.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $425.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday. Freedom Capital cut shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $416.02.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $351.28, for a total value of $39,343.36. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 18,833 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,615,656.24. This trade represents a 0.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $368.63, for a total transaction of $387,061.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 1,481 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $545,941.03. This represents a 41.49% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders have sold 159,415 shares of company stock worth $7,672,279. 11.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet posted blowout Q2 results, with revenue of $119.8 billion and EPS of $9.11, both above Wall Street expectations, while Google Cloud revenue surged 82% year over year. Reuters: Google quarterly cloud revenue growth beats expectations
• Positive Sentiment: Management said AI demand is outpacing capacity, and Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said existing customers are spending roughly 50% more than they initially committed, pointing to strong enterprise demand and room for continued growth. CNBC: Google Cloud CEO Kurian says customers are spending 50% more as segment blows away expectations
• Positive Sentiment: Search, YouTube, and Gemini also showed momentum, with search revenue up 17% and Gemini nearing 1 billion monthly users, reinforcing Alphabet’s broader AI and consumer platform strength. Business Insider: AI is actually making Google search bigger

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. EMC Capital Management purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $33,000. PMV Capital Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $38,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $38,000. Finally, Bard Associates Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $52,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $366.14 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $338.86. The company has a market capitalization of $3.85 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.24.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $6.22. The business had revenue of $119.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $117.07 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 8th were issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 8th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 6.71%.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc is the holding company created in 2015 to organize Google and a portfolio of businesses developing technologies beyond Google’s core internet services. Its principal operations are led by Google, which builds and operates consumer-facing products such as Google Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Workspace, as well as advertising platforms (Google Ads and AdSense) that historically generate the majority of its revenue. Google also develops consumer hardware (Pixel phones, Nest smart-home devices, Chromecast) and developer and distribution platforms such as Google Play.

Beyond Google’s consumer and advertising businesses, Alphabet invests in enterprise and infrastructure offerings through Google Cloud, which provides cloud computing, data analytics and productivity services to businesses and institutions.