Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock Price Down 4.7% on Insider Selling

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) traded down 4.7% during trading on Thursday after an insider sold shares in the company. The company traded as low as $168.33 and last traded at $168.97. 6,003,321 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 69% from the average session volume of 19,474,070 shares. The stock had previously closed at $177.33.

Specifically, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total value of $3,975,075.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,061,806 shares in the company, valued at $364,259,266.02. This represents a 1.08 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on GOOG. UBS Group increased their target price on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $200.56.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.6 %

The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.09, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.04. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $169.10 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $171.87.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.55 earnings per share. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 10.61%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Sculati Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 0.9% during the third quarter. Sculati Wealth Management LLC now owns 24,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,695,000 after acquiring an additional 220 shares in the last quarter. Tudor Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,400,000. Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 6.9% during the third quarter. Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd now owns 14,345 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,385,000 after purchasing an additional 927 shares in the last quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 16,936 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,831,000 after acquiring an additional 655 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aldebaran Financial Inc. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.4% during the 3rd quarter. Aldebaran Financial Inc. now owns 10,401 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,739,000 after acquiring an additional 435 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.