Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Down 1% – What’s Next?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s stock price was down 1% on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $317.20 and last traded at $320.28. Approximately 29,714,873 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 24% from the average daily volume of 23,900,359 shares. The stock had previously closed at $323.64.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Citigroup reissued a “market outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on Alphabet from $260.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. KeyCorp reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $330.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Pivotal Research boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $300.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, DA Davidson set a $300.00 target price on Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have given a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $304.62.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.0%

The stock has a market capitalization of $3.86 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $265.76 and a 200 day moving average price of $217.01. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a return on equity of 36.08% and a net margin of 32.23%.The company had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.12 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 8.28%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $291.80, for a total transaction of $32,681.60. Following the transaction, the director owned 18,004 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,253,567.20. This represents a 0.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $288.26, for a total value of $800,786.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 11,739 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,383,884.14. The trade was a 19.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 227,952 shares of company stock valued at $58,896,009. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 5.6% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 120,253 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,901,000 after acquiring an additional 6,410 shares during the period. SLT Holdings LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 10.7% during the first quarter. SLT Holdings LLC now owns 3,625 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $566,000 after acquiring an additional 350 shares in the last quarter. Marco Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 13.1% during the 1st quarter. Marco Investment Management LLC now owns 10,283 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,607,000 after acquiring an additional 1,195 shares during the period. Hurley Capital LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at $337,000. Finally, Fiera Capital Corp boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 41.8% during the 1st quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 26,935 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,208,000 after acquiring an additional 7,934 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% 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.