Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Trading Down 0.2% After Insider Selling

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) traded down 0.2% during trading on Tuesday following insider selling activity. The company traded as low as $165.94 and last traded at $166.88. 6,073,080 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 70% from the average session volume of 20,012,164 shares. The stock had previously closed at $167.19.

Specifically, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,802 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.47, for a total transaction of $2,780,226.94. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 43,999 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,280,514.53. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOG has been the subject of a number of research reports. Oppenheimer dropped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Pivotal Research started coverage on Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday. They set a “buy” rating and a $215.00 price objective for the company. DA Davidson upgraded Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Wolfe Research upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $183.75.

Alphabet Price Performance

The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $164.02 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $168.32. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock has a market cap of $2.06 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.60, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. The firm had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.22 billion. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.44 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 9th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 12.27%.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 19.7% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 84,171,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,815,986,000 after purchasing an additional 13,876,534 shares during the period. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the first quarter valued at $1,378,708,000. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in Alphabet by 9.3% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,716,562 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,355,724,000 after buying an additional 7,470,042 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 51.8% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 6,416,150 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $976,923,000 after acquiring an additional 2,190,795 shares during the period. Finally, Vima LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 178,253.1% during the 1st quarter. Vima LLC now owns 2,001,122 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $304,691,000 after acquiring an additional 2,000,000 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.