Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Director Sells $17,743.35 in Stock

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) Director Frances Arnold sold 111 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.85, for a total transaction of $17,743.35. Following the transaction, the director now owns 17,158 shares in the company, valued at $2,742,706.30. The trade was a 0.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link.

Frances Arnold also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, March 28th, Frances Arnold sold 111 shares of Alphabet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.42, for a total value of $18,028.62.
• On Friday, February 28th, Frances Arnold sold 121 shares of Alphabet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.30, for a total transaction of $20,606.30.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.9 %

NASDAQ GOOG traded up $3.02 during trading on Friday, reaching $165.81. 16,826,135 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 19,189,025. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $208.70. The stock has a market cap of $2.01 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $162.25 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $177.09.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The firm had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.89 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.36%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.5% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,024,276 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,843,149,000 after purchasing an additional 264,962 shares during the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at $166,000. McIlrath & Eck LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 12.9% during the 3rd quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 13,575 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,270,000 after buying an additional 1,546 shares during the last quarter. Passumpsic Savings Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth $263,000. Finally, Advisory Resource Group boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 8.7% in the third quarter. Advisory Resource Group now owns 10,277 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,718,000 after acquiring an additional 822 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on GOOG shares. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 11th. Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "overweight" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Susquehanna reissued a "positive" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday. Finally, Benchmark reaffirmed a "negative" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $203.94.

Alphabet Company Profile

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.