Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price Down 2.5% on Insider Selling

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) fell 2.5% during trading on Friday after an insider sold shares in the company. The company traded as low as $169.06 and last traded at $168.96. 17,587,174 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 42% from the average session volume of 30,437,208 shares. The stock had previously closed at $173.32.

Specifically, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.68, for a total value of $5,742,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,555,196 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $451,452,029.28. The trade was a 1.26% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Alphabet from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Truist Financial decreased their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Susquehanna decreased their price target on Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $189.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $199.75.

Alphabet Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.02 trillion, a PE ratio of 18.58, a PEG ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.01. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $164.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $174.72.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.89 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th were paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $24,383,677,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet during the first quarter valued at approximately $4,317,606,000. FMR LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 9.8% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $47,025,322,000 after buying an additional 22,100,902 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 16,993.2% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,483,898,000 after buying an additional 15,968,487 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 2.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $78,839,544,000 after buying an additional 14,307,345 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.