Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading Down 1.7% Following Analyst Downgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was down 1.7% during mid-day trading on Wednesday after BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on the stock from $222.00 to $215.00. BMO Capital Markets currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as low as $159.74 and last traded at $161.61. Approximately 11,806,785 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 57% from the average daily volume of 27,244,359 shares. The stock had previously closed at $164.38.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $200.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $220.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Pivotal Research upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Alphabet from $205.00 to $190.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $206.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $200.95.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.00, for a total transaction of $114,576.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 31,334 shares in the company, valued at $5,264,112. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.00, for a total value of $114,576.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 31,334 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,264,112. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.07, for a total transaction of $3,759,075.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,129,306 shares in the company, valued at approximately $355,743,153.42. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 217,592 shares of company stock valued at $35,922,911 over the last 90 days. 11.55% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 75.0% in the second quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 140 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Kings Path Partners LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth $36,000. Tributary Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the first quarter valued at about $30,000. Denver PWM LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter valued at about $41,000. Finally, Quarry LP bought a new position in Alphabet during the second quarter worth about $53,000. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.7 %

The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $161.81 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $167.61. The firm has a market cap of $2.00 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.79, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $70.60 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.44 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.50%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.