Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price Down 1.8% – Here’s What Happened

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s stock price fell 1.8% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $172.18 and last traded at $172.39. 6,359,831 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 76% from the average session volume of 27,027,539 shares. The stock had previously closed at $175.58.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on Alphabet from $217.00 to $208.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $190.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have issued a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.90.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.0 %

The business’s 50-day moving average price is $165.18 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $170.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95. The company has a market capitalization of $2.11 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.55 EPS. Research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 10.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 21,467 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.35, for a total value of $3,442,233.45. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 39,334 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,307,206.90. This represents a 35.31 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.66, for a total value of $3,772,350.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,159,885 shares in the company, valued at $362,126,319.10. The trade was a 1.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 206,795 shares of company stock valued at $34,471,141. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 43,005.6% in the 3rd 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 acquiring an additional 18,700,111 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 587.4% in the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 10,690,326 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,772,991,000 after purchasing an additional 9,135,056 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in Alphabet by 14.4% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 57,803,291 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,724,251,000 after purchasing an additional 7,275,757 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in Alphabet by 116.4% during the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Wulff Hansen & CO. lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 18,810.2% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,434,260 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $807,700,000 after buying an additional 4,410,811 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.