Insider Selling: Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Director Sells $19,137.51 in Stock

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Director Frances Arnold sold 111 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.41, for a total value of $19,137.51. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 17,268 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,977,175.88. The trade was a 0.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Frances Arnold also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, April 30th, Frances Arnold sold 111 shares of Alphabet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.85, for a total value of $17,743.35.
• On Friday, March 28th, Frances Arnold sold 111 shares of Alphabet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.42, for a total value of $18,028.62.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $169.39 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $2.06 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $161.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $176.14. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $142.66 and a 1-year high of $208.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.50%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.36%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Tigress Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. KeyCorp dropped their target price on Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “sell” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Westpark Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $204.88.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 9.3% during the fourth quarter. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC now owns 28,044 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,341,000 after buying an additional 2,390 shares in the last quarter. LaFleur & Godfrey LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. LaFleur & Godfrey LLC now owns 31,967 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,088,000 after acquiring an additional 380 shares during the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 5.6% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 120,253 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $22,901,000 after acquiring an additional 6,410 shares during the last quarter. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $204,262,000. Finally, McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. now owns 5,787 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,102,000 after acquiring an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% 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.