Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading Down 0.8% – Time to Sell?

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) traded down 0.8% on Thursday . The company traded as low as $192.38 and last traded at $193.95. 24,842,898 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 4% from the average session volume of 23,971,379 shares. The stock had previously closed at $195.49.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Loop Capital raised their target price on Alphabet from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. China Renaissance raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $190.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have issued a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $206.82.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.8 %

The business has a 50-day moving average of $181.75 and a 200-day moving average of $172.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.37 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.72, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.98.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 business earned $1.55 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 10.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total transaction of $6,870,532.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. This represents a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.95, for a total value of $247,425.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 26,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,342,143.80. This trade represents a 5.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 155,887 shares of company stock valued at $27,996,356 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 222,555,548 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $36,910,838,000 after acquiring an additional 743,369 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 134,030,679 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,154,651,000 after buying an additional 2,626,431 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,559,240,000 after buying an additional 4,567,275 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 49,857,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,268,933,000 after buying an additional 1,237,385 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 37,233,079 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,175,106,000 after buying an additional 523,416 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.