Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock Price Down 1% After Insider Selling

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) traded down 1% on Monday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock traded as low as $369.71 and last traded at $372.58. 16,316,888 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 21% from the average session volume of 20,730,338 shares. The stock had previously closed at $376.43.

Specifically, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $381.00, for a total transaction of $38,862.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 18,721 shares in the company, valued at $7,132,701. The trade was a 0.54% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOG has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Phillip Securities lowered shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 15th. DZ Bank raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 16th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $395.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $345.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Scotiabank reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $450.00 price target (up from $400.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $376.00.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Berkshire Hathaway agreed to invest $10 billion in Alphabet as part of the capital raise, a major vote of confidence in the company’s AI strategy. Berkshire invests extra $10 billion in Alphabet, deepening bet on AI
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street commentary remains constructive, with analysts saying Google is a clear beneficiary of AI search growth and can still defend its core search franchise. Google Is the Clear Beneficiary,” Says Top Analyst as AI Search Takes Off
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet also continues to attract bullish analyst coverage, including recent buy ratings and higher price targets after Google I/O AI announcements. Goldman Sachs and TD Cowen Maintain Buy Ratings on Alphabet (GOOGL) After AI Announcements at Google I/O
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet’s expanded collaboration with Google Cloud customer Lovable underscores continued AI-platform adoption, but it is more of a long-term growth story than a near-term stock catalyst. Lovable Expands Collaboration With Google Cloud to Scale AI-Powered Software Creation
• Negative Sentiment: U.K. regulators imposed new competition rules requiring Google to let publishers opt out of AI search features, which could weaken monetization and increase regulatory pressure. UK regulator enforces new competition requirements for Google search

Alphabet Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a current ratio of 1.92. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.37 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.22. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $344.61 and its 200-day moving average price is $325.11.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $2.43. The firm had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.96 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%.Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.81 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.29 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 8th. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.41%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 421,013,782 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $132,114,125,000 after purchasing an additional 8,128,234 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in Alphabet by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 187,102,863 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $58,712,878,000 after buying an additional 953,790 shares in the last quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 38,409.2% during the fourth quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 179,836,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,643,262,000 after acquiring an additional 179,369,280 shares during the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 28,482.8% in the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 112,091,870 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $35,174,429,000 after acquiring an additional 111,699,704 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 100,602,893 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $31,569,189,000 after purchasing an additional 1,073,151 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) is a multinational technology holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Formed in 2015 through a corporate restructuring of Google, Alphabet serves as the parent to Google LLC and a portfolio of businesses collectively known as “Other Bets.” Google was originally founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Alphabet is led by CEO Sundar Pichai, who oversees Google and the broader company while the founders remain prominent shareholders and influential figures in the company’s history.

Alphabet’s core business centers on internet search and advertising, with Google Search and the company’s ad platforms (including Google Ads and AdSense) generating the majority of revenue by connecting advertisers with consumers worldwide.