Insider Selling: Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Director Sells 200 Shares of Stock

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total transaction of $33,106.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. This trade represents a 2.50 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL traded down $4.35 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $162.76. The company had a trading volume of 31,703,989 shares, compared to its average volume of 30,122,760. The stock has a market cap of $1.98 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The business’s 50-day moving average is $186.76 and its 200-day moving average is $176.48. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $140.03 and a 52 week high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) 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%. Equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company 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 of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.94%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $30,000. LMR Partners LLP acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth $32,000. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 518.8% during the 4th quarter. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. now owns 198 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 166 shares during the last quarter. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $39,000. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp boosted its stake in Alphabet by 36.1% during the 4th quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 245 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on GOOGL. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Wolfe Research lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Robert W. Baird reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $205.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. DZ Bank cut shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $198.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Wedbush lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $210.62.

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.