Frances Arnold Sells 121 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Director Frances Arnold sold 121 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.30, for a total transaction of $20,606.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 16,938 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,884,541.40. The trade was a 0.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Frances Arnold also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Thursday, January 30th, Frances Arnold sold 110 shares of Alphabet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total transaction of $22,000.00.
• On Tuesday, December 31st, Frances Arnold sold 111 shares of Alphabet stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.49, for a total transaction of $21,366.39.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of GOOG opened at $172.22 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $192.17 and its 200 day moving average is $177.73. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $131.55 and a fifty-two week high of $208.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.10 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Norges Bank bought a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $5,166,070,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $1,551,533,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in Alphabet by 16.1% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,098,042 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,873,751,000 after acquiring an additional 7,917,625 shares during the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 181,679.1% during the fourth quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 7,225,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,376,066,000 after acquiring an additional 7,221,746 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors increased its position in Alphabet by 6.7% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 91,236,069 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $17,376,706,000 after acquiring an additional 5,758,244 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on GOOG. Scotiabank lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Citizens Jmp downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $209.13.

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.