Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Down 2.1% on Insider Selling

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s share price traded down 2.1% on Tuesday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock traded as low as $276.87 and last traded at $278.06. 17,806,410 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 24% from the average session volume of 23,449,363 shares. The stock had previously closed at $284.12.

Specifically, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $291.80, for a total value of $32,681.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 18,004 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,253,567.20. This trade represents a 0.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. HSBC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $335.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Alphabet from $300.00 to $345.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Alphabet from $285.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Rosenblatt Securities set a $279.00 target price on Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $324.81.

Alphabet Price Performance

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 $3.36 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.42, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $246.09 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $202.22.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a return on equity of 36.08% and a net margin of 32.23%.The business had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.12 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised 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 valued at $23,963,208,000 after acquiring an additional 135,064,454 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $4,298,572,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $2,622,943,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Alphabet by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $64,299,725,000 after acquiring an additional 9,687,855 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised 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 valued at $15,971,861,000 after acquiring an additional 9,243,959 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.