Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Down 0.1% – Here’s Why

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shares fell 0.1% during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $172.90 and last traded at $175.17. 9,128,464 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 67% from the average session volume of 27,424,055 shares. The stock had previously closed at $175.42.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Pivotal Research lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Loop Capital lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on Alphabet from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $210.62.

Alphabet Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $191.72 and a 200-day simple moving average of $176.14. The stock has a market cap of $2.11 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.50, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total value of $6,870,532.68. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares in the company, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. This represents a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total transaction of $232,950.47. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 23,515 shares in the company, valued at $4,007,191.15. This trade represents a 5.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 134,299 shares of company stock worth $25,055,751. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Lakeshore Capital Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,233,000. Heck Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $6,578,000. Leigh Baldwin & CO. LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $975,000. Brick & Kyle Associates lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Brick & Kyle Associates now owns 58,311 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $11,038,000 after buying an additional 2,168 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Armis Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $1,173,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.