Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Gap Down to $183.60

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) gapped down before the market opened on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $183.60, but opened at $175.39. Alphabet shares last traded at $176.50, with a volume of 5,299,099 shares.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Rosenblatt Securities cut shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Wolfe Research raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $177.50.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 2.15, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $180.85 and its 200-day simple moving average is $161.44. The stock has a market cap of $2.15 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a return on equity of 29.52% and a net margin of 25.90%. The firm had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $84.22 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.44 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a — dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 10th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 12.27%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 2,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.76, for a total transaction of $369,096.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 5,891 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,035,402.16. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.80, for a total value of $3,753,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,280,511 shares in the company, valued at approximately $380,389,234.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 2,100 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.76, for a total transaction of $369,096.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 5,891 shares in the company, valued at $1,035,402.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 146,988 shares of company stock valued at $26,068,355. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 32.3% during the fourth quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 80,008 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $11,276,000 after purchasing an additional 19,511 shares during the period. Oak Ridge Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 179,028 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $25,230,000 after acquiring an additional 1,635 shares during the period. Ulland Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Ulland Investment Advisors LLC now owns 50,184 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,072,000 after acquiring an additional 430 shares during the last quarter. Bill Few Associates Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Bill Few Associates Inc. now owns 40,156 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,659,000 after purchasing an additional 980 shares during the period. Finally, Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 5.7% during the 4th quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 4,174 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $588,000 after purchasing an additional 224 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% 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.