Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Down 2.4% – Here’s What Happened

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s stock price traded down 2.4% on Thursday . The company traded as low as $308.60 and last traded at $312.43. 39,383,662 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 7% from the average session volume of 36,717,957 shares. The stock had previously closed at $320.21.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $320.00 price objective (up previously from $245.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Melius Research upped their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $255.00 in a report on Thursday, September 25th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $290.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Alphabet from $270.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, CIBC raised their target price on Alphabet to $315.00 in a research note on Monday, October 20th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have issued a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $313.33.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $3.77 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.81, a PEG ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.07. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $280.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $227.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.75.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. The company had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 35.00%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.28%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $319.50, for a total value of $10,383,750.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,272,119 shares in the company, valued at approximately $725,942,020.50. The trade was a 1.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.06, for a total transaction of $168,036.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 4,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,264,750.96. The trade was a 11.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 226,128 shares of company stock worth $61,326,372 over the last 90 days. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $20,886,000 after buying an additional 4,110 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,826,000 after purchasing an additional 506 shares in the last quarter. Smart Money Group LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 9.4% in the 1st quarter. Smart Money Group LLC now owns 6,181 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $956,000 after buying an additional 532 shares during the period. United Bank lifted its position in Alphabet by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. United Bank now owns 45,084 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,972,000 after buying an additional 910 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Integrated Investment Consultants LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 16.4% during the 1st quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC now owns 27,114 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,193,000 after buying an additional 3,822 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently 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.