Insider Selling: Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Director Sells $387,061.50 in Stock

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Director John Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $368.63, for a total transaction of $387,061.50. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 1,481 shares in the company, valued at approximately $545,941.03. The trade was a 41.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $368.48 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $367.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of $331.95. The company has a market capitalization of $4.46 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.23. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $162.00 and a twelve month high of $408.61. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $2.47. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. The firm had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $106.98 billion. Equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 8th were paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 6.71%.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet is being viewed as a major AI winner thanks to ongoing investment in AI infrastructure and data centers, which could support future cloud and AI revenue growth. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Reports that Berkshire Hathaway nearly tripled its Alphabet position may be seen as a strong vote of confidence from a major long-term investor. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Coverage emphasizing Alphabet’s strong earnings and expanding Google Cloud backlog supports the case for continued fundamental improvement. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet’s stock is drawing increased investor attention and analyst commentary, but these are mostly sentiment-driven mentions rather than new company-specific catalysts. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Noam Shazeer, a top Google DeepMind/Gemini AI leader, is leaving for OpenAI, underscoring the competitive AI talent war. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: John Jumper is also departing Google DeepMind for Anthropic, adding to concerns that Alphabet may be losing key AI researchers. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Waymo’s recall of nearly 3,900 robotaxis after construction-zone driving errors raises safety and regulatory concerns for Alphabet’s autonomous vehicle business. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: The UK ordering Google to improve search-ranking transparency highlights continued regulatory scrutiny over its core search business. Article Title

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOGL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $425.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and set a $425.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Arete Research upped their target price on Alphabet from $405.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $420.00 target price on Alphabet and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn increased their target price on Alphabet from $390.00 to $430.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $413.13.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. AMS Capital Ltda raised its stake in Alphabet by 781.1% during the first quarter. AMS Capital Ltda now owns 111,474 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $32,670,000 after buying an additional 98,823 shares in the last quarter. Steelhead Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 1st quarter worth approximately $538,000. S&A Financial Services Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $584,000. E Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 6.4% in the 1st quarter. E Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $551,000 after acquiring an additional 116 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LFG Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.8% during the 1st quarter. LFG Wealth Partners LLC now owns 27,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,972,000 after acquiring an additional 768 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc is the holding company created in 2015 to organize Google and a portfolio of businesses developing technologies beyond Google’s core internet services. Its principal operations are led by Google, which builds and operates consumer-facing products such as Google Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Workspace, as well as advertising platforms (Google Ads and AdSense) that historically generate the majority of its revenue. Google also develops consumer hardware (Pixel phones, Nest smart-home devices, Chromecast) and developer and distribution platforms such as Google Play.

Beyond Google’s consumer and advertising businesses, Alphabet invests in enterprise and infrastructure offerings through Google Cloud, which provides cloud computing, data analytics and productivity services to businesses and institutions.