Sundar Pichai Sells 32,500 Shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.15, for a total transaction of $8,129,875.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,369,619 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $592,760,192.85. This represents a 1.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

Sundar Pichai also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, October 1st, Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.41, for a total transaction of $7,910,825.00.
• On Wednesday, September 17th, Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.50, for a total transaction of $8,108,750.00.
• On Wednesday, September 3rd, Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $229.73, for a total transaction of $7,466,225.00.
• On Wednesday, August 20th, Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $199.92, for a total transaction of $6,497,400.00.
• On Wednesday, August 6th, Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $196.23, for a total transaction of $6,377,475.00.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOG opened at $253.79 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month high of $257.58. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.07 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.03, a P/E/G ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.00. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $232.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $192.97.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.67 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 8.95%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 416,753,033 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $73,927,821,000 after purchasing an additional 5,182,111 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Alphabet by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 188,914,125 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $33,511,477,000 after purchasing an additional 2,428,266 shares during the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 580,897.4% during the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 135,087,705 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $23,963,208,000 after purchasing an additional 135,064,454 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 107,760,033 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,022,926,000 after purchasing an additional 441,177 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 9.9% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,971,861,000 after purchasing an additional 9,243,959 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOG has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, September 22nd. Mizuho raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 29th. Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Citizens Jmp raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $244.68.

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.