Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price Down 1.3% Following Insider Selling

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) fell 1.3% on Tuesday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock traded as low as $156.82 and last traded at $157.04. 7,321,344 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 74% from the average session volume of 28,143,307 shares. The stock had previously closed at $159.07.

Specifically, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.90, for a total transaction of $32,380.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 7,613 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,232,544.70. The trade was a 2.56 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Roth Mkm reissued a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. DA Davidson dropped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $204.72.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $1.91 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $167.17 and its 200-day moving average is $176.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted 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%. Analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. FMB Wealth Management raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.5% during the 1st quarter. FMB Wealth Management now owns 3,917 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $606,000 after purchasing an additional 134 shares during the period. Yarger Wealth Strategies LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 5.7% during the 1st quarter. Yarger Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 1,716 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $265,000 after acquiring an additional 93 shares during the period. Davis Investment Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 57.7% during the first quarter. Davis Investment Partners LLC now owns 1,832 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $291,000 after purchasing an additional 670 shares during the period. Net Worth Advisory Group lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 28.2% in the first quarter. Net Worth Advisory Group now owns 5,868 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $907,000 after purchasing an additional 1,291 shares during the period. Finally, Members Wealth LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 5.6% in the 1st quarter. Members Wealth LLC now owns 2,986 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $462,000 after buying an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is 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.