Insider Selling: Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Director Sells 1,500 Shares of Stock

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 14th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $4,342,143.80. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL traded up $0.50 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $165.46. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 20,176,803 shares, compared to its average volume of 27,139,379. The stock has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.46, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $161.49 and a 200 day simple moving average of $167.96. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $120.21 and a twelve month high of $191.75.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. The company had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $70.60 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.44 EPS. Research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 9th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 12.27%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently weighed in on GOOGL shares. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $200.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Scotiabank upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $200.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $205.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on Alphabet from $222.00 to $215.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $201.13.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 587.4% in the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 10,690,326 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,772,991,000 after buying an additional 9,135,056 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in Alphabet by 14.4% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 57,803,291 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,724,251,000 after buying an additional 7,275,757 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 493,810,251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $68,980,354,000 after buying an additional 6,374,756 shares in the last quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 18,810.2% in the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,434,260 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $807,700,000 after buying an additional 4,410,811 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 143.7% in the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,072,197 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,288,201,000 after buying an additional 4,170,229 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.