Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Trading Down 3.3% Following Insider Selling

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) traded down 3.3% during mid-day trading on Friday following insider selling activity. The company traded as low as $159.61 and last traded at $158.64. 8,011,628 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 55% from the average session volume of 17,835,770 shares. The stock had previously closed at $164.08.

Specifically, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total value of $1,962,705.76. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 49,037 shares in the company, valued at $8,181,333.08. The trade was a 19.35 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOG has been the topic of several analyst reports. Scotiabank lifted their target price on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $200.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Citizens Jmp downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $208.56.

Alphabet Stock Down 4.9 %

The firm has a market cap of $1.90 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $181.53 and a 200-day moving average price of $178.31. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.94%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Milestone Asset Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $812,000. Mascagni Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $206,000. Prostatis Group LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 10.7% in the 4th quarter. Prostatis Group LLC now owns 2,167 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $413,000 after buying an additional 210 shares during the last quarter. Nestegg Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $218,000. Finally, Fairtree Asset Management Pty Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $4,659,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.