Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Trading Down 0.4% – Should You Sell?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) shares fell 0.4% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $193.75 and last traded at $195.83. 4,314,574 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 70% from the average session volume of 14,168,385 shares. The stock had previously closed at $196.71.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on GOOG shares. Scotiabank assumed coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, October 11th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 price objective for the company. Citizens Jmp lowered shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. DA Davidson upgraded Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $200.56.

Alphabet Stock Performance

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 $2.40 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $182.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $174.23.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.39 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.55 EPS. Alphabet’s revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 10.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,368 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.55, for a total transaction of $262,040.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 20,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,961,445.55. This represents a 6.20 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total value of $6,870,532.68. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares in the company, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. The trade was a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 155,887 shares of company stock worth $27,996,356. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Fulton Bank N.A. grew its position in Alphabet by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 77,667 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $14,791,000 after buying an additional 3,052 shares during the period. Worth Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $211,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth about $10,701,000. One Wealth Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth about $2,589,000. Finally, Westwind Capital boosted its position in Alphabet by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Westwind Capital now owns 120,554 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,958,000 after acquiring an additional 1,226 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently 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.