Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Down 0.2% – What’s Next?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) traded down 0.2% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $174.93 and last traded at $177.09. 6,536,077 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 63% from the average session volume of 17,466,754 shares. The stock had previously closed at $177.37.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOG has been the topic of a number of research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Scotiabank raised their target price on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Pivotal Research boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $209.13.

Alphabet Price Performance

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 stock has a market capitalization of $2.14 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.00. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $193.29 and its two-hundred day moving average is $177.66.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet 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 completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $52,329,576.64. This represents a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total value of $232,950.47. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 23,515 shares in the company, valued at $4,007,191.15. The trade was a 5.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 134,299 shares of company stock valued at $25,055,751 in the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. M&G PLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter worth $2,240,000. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 6.8% during the 4th quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 16,248 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,094,000 after buying an additional 1,041 shares during the period. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 14.4% in the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 116,776 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $19,642,000 after purchasing an additional 14,738 shares during the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 301,980 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $50,488,000 after purchasing an additional 4,292 shares during the period. Finally, Requisite Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $927,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

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.