Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Gap Down After Analyst Downgrade

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) gapped down before the market opened on Wednesday after Piper Sandler lowered their price target on the stock from $210.00 to $208.00. The stock had previously closed at $206.38, but opened at $191.07. Piper Sandler currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Alphabet shares last traded at $189.51, with a volume of 14,914,099 shares traded.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Phillip Securities raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Roth Mkm lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $206.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $205.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Alphabet from $215.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on Alphabet from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $210.95.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total transaction of $232,950.47. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 23,515 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,007,191.15. This represents a 5.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’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. This trade represents a 1.08 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 89,529 shares of company stock valued at $16,600,078. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Maverick Capital Ltd. bought a new stake in Alphabet during the second quarter worth approximately $2,038,000. Matrix Private Capital Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.9% in the 2nd quarter. Matrix Private Capital Group LLC now owns 6,046 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,101,000 after buying an additional 226 shares in the last quarter. Makena Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 31.6% in the 2nd quarter. Makena Capital Management LLC now owns 91,520 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $16,670,000 after buying an additional 21,997 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 14.6% in the second quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 7,660,106 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,395,288,000 after buying an additional 975,341 shares during the period. Finally, Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the second quarter valued at about $610,000. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 7.3 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95. The business has a fifty day moving average of $190.39 and a 200-day moving average of $174.40. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.34 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.99.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.