Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Down 0.6% on Insider Selling

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) traded down 0.6% during mid-day trading on Thursday following insider selling activity. The stock traded as low as $182.72 and last traded at $184.11. 5,415,888 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 80% from the average session volume of 26,768,566 shares. The stock had previously closed at $185.27.

Specifically, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,690 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.51, for a total value of $3,281,671.90. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 43,111 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,997,521.61. This trade represents a 29.09 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,824 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $187.43, for a total transaction of $529,302.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares in the company, valued at $2,815,948.32. This trade represents a 15.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 29,066 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.89, for a total transaction of $5,374,012.74. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 272,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,376,238.74. The trade was a 9.64 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Citizens Jmp cut shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Truist Financial lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $210.62.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.7 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $192.46 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $175.69. The stock has a market cap of $2.19 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.99.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. Equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.94%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Brady Family Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Brady Family Wealth LLC now owns 68,597 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $11,377,000 after acquiring an additional 1,048 shares in the last quarter. Lynch & Associates IN lifted its position in Alphabet by 1.7% during the third quarter. Lynch & Associates IN now owns 30,534 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,064,000 after purchasing an additional 508 shares during the period. ERn Financial LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 1.5% during the third quarter. ERn Financial LLC now owns 17,274 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,865,000 after purchasing an additional 263 shares during the period. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda lifted its position in Alphabet by 2.7% during the third quarter. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda now owns 9,203 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,526,000 after purchasing an additional 246 shares during the period. Finally, EdgeRock Capital LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 7.5% during the third quarter. EdgeRock Capital LLC now owns 6,399 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,061,000 after purchasing an additional 444 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by 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.