Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Insider Ruth Porat Sells 17,690 Shares

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) insider Ruth Porat sold 17,690 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.48, for a total transaction of $3,245,761.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,449,286 shares in the company, valued at approximately $265,914,995.28. This represents a 1.21 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $179.66 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $192.46 and a 200 day simple moving average of $175.81. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $130.66 and a 12-month high of $207.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.19 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.45%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 9.94%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $204.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $217.00 price objective (up previously from $215.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Bank of America restated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $210.62.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% in 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 last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Alphabet by 0.3% during 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 purchasing an additional 743,369 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised 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 worth $22,154,651,000 after purchasing an additional 2,626,431 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $24,383,677,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in Alphabet by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $18,672,198,000 after purchasing an additional 7,574,417 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.