John L. Hennessy Sells 700 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Director John L. Hennessy sold 700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.00, for a total value of $115,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 27,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,590,960. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of GOOGL opened at $161.49 on Thursday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $120.21 and a 52 week high of $191.75. The company has a quick ratio of 2.08, a current ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The company has a market capitalization of $1.99 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.77, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.04. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $163.80 and its 200-day moving average price is $166.17.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. The firm had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $70.60 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.44 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 9th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 12.27%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. TD Securities upped their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Bank of America upped their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $206.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and set a $196.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Mizuho upped their price objective on Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Guggenheim upped their price objective on Alphabet from $195.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $201.08.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Alphabet by 0.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 497,874,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $75,144,172,000 after purchasing an additional 4,064,073 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in Alphabet by 14.4% during the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 57,803,291 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,724,251,000 after purchasing an additional 7,275,757 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in Alphabet by 0.5% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 49,472,478 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,011,412,000 after purchasing an additional 238,403 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,178,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,310,925,000 after purchasing an additional 1,429,261 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.7% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 35,412,299 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,344,778,000 after acquiring an additional 597,756 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

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.