Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading Down 1.1%

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) fell 1.1% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $162.50 and last traded at $162.93. 3,377,725 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 88% from the average session volume of 27,635,578 shares. The stock had previously closed at $164.68.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $206.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $208.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $196.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. Finally, TD Securities increased their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $203.74.

Alphabet Price Performance

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 company has a 50 day simple moving average of $174.51 and a 200 day simple moving average of $163.44. The stock has a market cap of $2.00 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.99, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $70.60 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.44 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.49%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 12.27%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total value of $5,570,188.20. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 312,210 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,765,346. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the business’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 directly owns 312,210 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,765,346. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.86, for a total value of $118,572.52. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,966 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,209,888.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 156,565 shares of company stock worth $26,823,893 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc raised its position in Alphabet by 75.0% during 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 in the last quarter. Kings Path Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at $36,000. Tributary Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 1st quarter worth $30,000. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $30,000. Finally, Denver PWM LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the second quarter valued at about $41,000. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

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.