Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price Down 1% – Here’s What Happened

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s stock price fell 1% on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $188.51 and last traded at $189.30. 17,430,271 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 37% from the average session volume of 27,460,176 shares. The stock had previously closed at $191.24.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Alphabet from $190.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $217.00 target price (up from $215.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Pivotal Research raised their price target on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $206.69.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.0 %

The firm has a market cap of $2.32 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.01. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $178.64 and its 200-day moving average is $172.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $72.85 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.55 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.42%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 10.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 282,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. This trade represents a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $197.55, for a total transaction of $559,856.70. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 20,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,085,531.55. This represents a 12.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 137,588 shares of company stock worth $24,473,081. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 43,005.6% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 18,743,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $31,086,250,000 after buying an additional 18,700,111 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 587.4% during the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 10,690,326 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,772,991,000 after acquiring an additional 9,135,056 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 116.4% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 8,670,225 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,437,957,000 after purchasing an additional 4,662,809 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 7.7% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,559,240,000 after purchasing an additional 4,567,275 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wulff Hansen & CO. raised its stake in Alphabet by 18,810.2% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,434,260 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $807,700,000 after purchasing an additional 4,410,811 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

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.