John Hennessy Sells 600 Shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Director John Hennessy sold 600 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.06, for a total transaction of $168,036.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 4,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,264,750.96. The trade was a 11.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $284.28 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.43 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $259.16 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $211.00. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $293.95.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a return on equity of 36.08% and a net margin of 32.23%.The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. As a group, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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 issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.28%.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Silvant Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.7% in the third quarter. Silvant Capital Management LLC now owns 588,952 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $143,174,000 after purchasing an additional 21,132 shares during the last quarter. Kozak & Associates Inc. boosted its position in Alphabet by 10.8% in the third quarter. Kozak & Associates Inc. now owns 4,564 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,110,000 after buying an additional 446 shares during the last quarter. San Luis Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. San Luis Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 47,509 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $11,549,000 after buying an additional 558 shares during the period. Boyar Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Alphabet by 15.8% during the 3rd quarter. Boyar Asset Management Inc. now owns 11,530 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,803,000 after buying an additional 1,570 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tcfg Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 620.9% during the 3rd quarter. Tcfg Wealth Management LLC now owns 73,596 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $17,891,000 after acquiring an additional 63,387 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. DA Davidson increased their price objective on Alphabet from $190.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Loop Capital upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $260.00 to $320.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, HSBC upped their target price on Alphabet from $295.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have assigned a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $305.33.

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.