Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Sees Significant Decrease in Short Interest

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest in May. As of May 31st, there was short interest totalling 36,720,000 shares, a decrease of 5.9% from the May 15th total of 39,030,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 20,550,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.8 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.78, for a total transaction of $3,347,550.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,310,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $343,710,216.98. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.78, for a total value of $3,347,550.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,310,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $343,710,216.98. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 12,084 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.19, for a total transaction of $1,826,979.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 48,717 shares in the company, valued at $7,365,523.23. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 158,458 shares of company stock valued at $25,731,103. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. PAX Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $209,000. Interchange Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Interchange Capital Partners LLC now owns 4,041 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $533,000 after buying an additional 101 shares during the last quarter. Rathbones Group PLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 70.3% in the 3rd quarter. Rathbones Group PLC now owns 2,018,692 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $266,165,000 after buying an additional 833,601 shares during the last quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 6.6% in the 3rd quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 38,227 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,040,000 after buying an additional 2,377 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TFB Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. TFB Advisors LLC now owns 10,200 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,345,000 after buying an additional 588 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on GOOG shares. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $165.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $165.67.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $178.78 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.21 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.42, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a quick ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. Alphabet has a 12-month low of $115.83 and a 12-month high of $182.08. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $170.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $152.83.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.51 by $0.38. The firm had revenue of $80.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $78.75 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 25.90% and a return on equity of 29.52%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.17 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 7.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a — dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 10th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 12.27%.

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.