Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock Price Down 1.7% – Here’s Why

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) shares traded down 1.7% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $161.12 and last traded at $162.86. 7,099,097 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 64% from the average session volume of 19,809,730 shares. The stock had previously closed at $165.70.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on GOOG. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Alphabet from $204.00 to $187.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Oppenheimer reduced their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $184.11.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $2.00 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a quick ratio of 2.08, a current ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $163.27 and a 200-day moving average price of $169.12.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $84.22 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.44 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.49%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 12.27%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total value of $5,570,188.20. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 312,210 shares in the company, valued at $50,765,346. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Alphabet news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total transaction of $5,570,188.20. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 312,210 shares in the company, valued at $50,765,346. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.85, for a total value of $278,775.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 30,824 shares in the company, valued at $5,728,640.40. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 217,592 shares of company stock valued at $35,922,911 over the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Northwest Bank & Trust Co raised its stake in Alphabet by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Northwest Bank & Trust Co now owns 21,844 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,652,000 after buying an additional 82 shares during the period. Modus Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Modus Advisors LLC now owns 39,498 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,604,000 after buying an additional 557 shares during the last quarter. SS&H Financial Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Alphabet by 2.7% in the third quarter. SS&H Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 24,110 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,031,000 after purchasing an additional 640 shares in the last quarter. Guardian Asset Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 7.4% in the third quarter. Guardian Asset Advisors LLC now owns 13,739 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,299,000 after buying an additional 950 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cypress Wealth Services LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Cypress Wealth Services LLC now owns 16,585 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,773,000 after buying an additional 284 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

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.