Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Down 1.5% on Insider Selling

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) shares dropped 1.5% during trading on Friday after an insider sold shares in the company. The company traded as low as $165.71 and last traded at $166.63. Approximately 6,433,535 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 67% from the average daily volume of 19,570,771 shares. The stock had previously closed at $169.24.

Specifically, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total value of $3,975,075.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,061,806 shares in the company, valued at approximately $364,259,266.02. The trade was a 1.08 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. DA Davidson upgraded Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $200.56.

Alphabet Price Performance

The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $169.10 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $171.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.09, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.55 EPS. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 10.61%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,985 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,465,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. PCG Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% in the 2nd quarter. PCG Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,880 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $345,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV now owns 3,636 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $667,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV now owns 2,944 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $540,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Shira Ridge Wealth Management increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. Shira Ridge Wealth Management now owns 15,490 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,841,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Alphabet

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.