Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading Down 2.5% After Insider Selling

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) dropped 2.5% during mid-day trading on Monday following insider selling activity. The stock traded as low as $154.93 and last traded at $162.52. Approximately 17,267,961 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 38% from the average daily volume of 27,936,578 shares. The stock had previously closed at $166.66.

Specifically, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.00, for a total transaction of $114,576.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 31,334 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,264,112. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.00, for a total transaction of $114,576.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 31,334 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,264,112. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.08, for a total value of $252,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 4,391 shares in the company, valued at approximately $738,039.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 99,808 shares of company stock worth $17,732,125 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $222.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday. Tigress Financial upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $176.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 24th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday. Roth Mkm boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $202.00 to $206.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $206.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $203.74.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.6 %

The company has a market cap of $1.95 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.40, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $178.11 and a 200-day moving average price of $161.69.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $70.60 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.44 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.51%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 12.27%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Norges Bank bought a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $15,441,917,000. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 14.4% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 57,803,291 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,724,251,000 after purchasing an additional 7,275,757 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 493,810,251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $68,980,354,000 after purchasing an additional 6,374,756 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado grew its holdings in Alphabet by 39,754.9% in the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 6,025,667 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $841,725,000 after buying an additional 6,010,548 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 4,894.1% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 5,445,396 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,606,670,000 after buying an additional 5,336,359 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% 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.