Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Down 1.2% – Time to Sell?

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) were down 1.2% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $338.57 and last traded at $340.67. Approximately 18,476,232 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 42% from the average session volume of 31,858,035 shares. The stock had previously closed at $344.72.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Rosenblatt upgraded Alphabet to “strong buy” and reiterated a $410 price target, implying substantial upside and reinforcing the bullish view following Alphabet’s strong earnings report. Alphabet upgraded by Rosenblatt Securities
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s AI spending continues to attract major customers and suppliers. Marvell’s custom-chip agreement includes a warrant structure that would require up to $120 billion of cumulative purchases from Google for full vesting, signaling the potentially enormous scale of Alphabet’s TPU and AI infrastructure buildout. Google’s Marvell warrant
• Positive Sentiment: Waymo received approval to operate up to thousands of commercial robotaxis in Nevada and opened its lower-cost next-generation vehicle to riders in Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco. Lower production and operating costs could improve the long-term economics of Alphabet’s autonomous-driving unit. Waymo Nevada robotaxi approval
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s earnings momentum remains a support for the stock. The company recently exceeded consensus estimates for both adjusted earnings and revenue, while analysts and prominent investors—including Berkshire Hathaway—continue to highlight Alphabet’s AI positioning and valuation.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the subject of several research reports. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $410.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $390.00 target price (up from $345.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Truist Financial set a $420.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, KeyCorp upped their price objective on Alphabet from $425.00 to $445.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 10th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $420.19.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.2%

The business has a 50-day moving average price of $352.00 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $341.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.22 trillion, a P/E ratio of 17.32, a P/E/G ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.89 by $6.22. The company had revenue of $119.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $117.07 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 51.32% and a net margin of 54.77%. On average, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 7th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 4.42%.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 118,138 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.90, for a total transaction of $2,232,808.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 82 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $333.39, for a total transaction of $27,337.98. Following the sale, the director owned 18,914 shares in the company, valued at $6,305,738.46. This represents a 0.43% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 451,945 shares of company stock worth $12,382,714. Insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $20,886,000 after acquiring an additional 4,110 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,826,000 after purchasing an additional 506 shares in the last quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY raised its position in Alphabet by 17.6% in the second quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY now owns 3,888 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $685,000 after purchasing an additional 581 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 11.2% during the second quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 485,486 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $85,557,000 after purchasing an additional 48,805 shares in the last quarter. Finally, United Bank grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 6.9% during the second quarter. United Bank now owns 48,204 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,495,000 after purchasing an additional 3,120 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

About Alphabet

Alphabet Inc is the holding company created in 2015 to organize Google and a portfolio of businesses developing technologies beyond Google’s core internet services. Its principal operations are led by Google, which builds and operates consumer-facing products such as Google Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Workspace, as well as advertising platforms (Google Ads and AdSense) that historically generate the majority of its revenue. Google also develops consumer hardware (Pixel phones, Nest smart-home devices, Chromecast) and developer and distribution platforms such as Google Play.

Beyond Google’s consumer and advertising businesses, Alphabet invests in enterprise and infrastructure offerings through Google Cloud, which provides cloud computing, data analytics and productivity services to businesses and institutions.