Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Director Sells $184,914.00 in Stock

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Director John Hennessy sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $308.19, for a total transaction of $184,914.00. Following the sale, the director owned 3,916 shares in the company, valued at $1,206,872.04. This represents a 13.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Alphabet Trading Down 3.1%

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG traded down $9.67 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $298.06. 28,380,620 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 27,439,056. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.75. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $287.17 and its 200-day simple moving average is $233.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.60 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.07. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month high of $328.67.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The information services provider reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. The business had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 35.00%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.12 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Investors of record on Monday, December 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, December 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.28%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of GOOG. IFS Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 400.0% during the 2nd quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Robbins Farley grew its holdings in Alphabet by 60.0% in the second quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 160 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the period. WestEnd Advisors LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 58.7% during the second quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC now owns 165 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. Fairman Group LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 121.3% in the 2nd quarter. Fairman Group LLC now owns 177 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 97 shares during the period. Finally, University of Illinois Foundation acquired a new position in Alphabet during the second quarter valued at approximately $31,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on GOOG. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and set a $375.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, December 1st. Rosenblatt Securities set a $279.00 target price on Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Citigroup reiterated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday. Pivotal Research restated a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 target price (up from $350.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, December 5th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $313.04.

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.