Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price Down 1.7% on Insider Selling

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s stock price was down 1.7% during trading on Friday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock traded as low as $163.90 and last traded at $164.83. Approximately 11,385,550 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 58% from the average daily volume of 27,136,639 shares. The stock had previously closed at $167.63.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on GOOGL. Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Pivotal Research upped their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Roth Mkm raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $206.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on shares of Alphabet from $217.00 to $208.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have issued a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $205.90.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $167.50 and its 200 day moving average price is $170.38. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The company has a market cap of $2.03 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results 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 net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.55 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc raised its holdings in Alphabet by 75.0% in the 2nd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 140 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. LMR Partners LLP bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth about $32,000. Kings Path Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at about $36,000. Denver PWM LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet in the second quarter valued at about $41,000. Finally, Quarry LP acquired a new position in Alphabet in the second quarter worth about $53,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.