Insider Selling: Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Director Sells 600 Shares of Stock

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $105,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 6,813 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,192,275. The trade was a 8.09% 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 the SEC website.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOG stock traded up $4.39 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $173.98. The company's stock had a trading volume of 24,291,303 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,134,882. The stock has a market cap of $2.11 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.61, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $142.66 and a fifty-two week high of $208.70. The company's 50 day moving average is $160.72 and its two-hundred day moving average is $176.47.

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

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Sterling Financial Planning Inc. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Sterling Financial Planning Inc. now owns 1,941 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $370,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Arlington Trust Co LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Arlington Trust Co LLC now owns 14,423 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,747,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. Harrell Investment Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Harrell Investment Partners LLC now owns 5,659 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,078,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Ethos Financial Group LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Ethos Financial Group LLC now owns 7,300 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,395,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the period. Finally, Hutchinson Capital Management CA increased its stake in Alphabet by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Hutchinson Capital Management CA now owns 3,555 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $677,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOG has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Susquehanna reaffirmed a "positive" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Needham & Company LLC downgraded shares of Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "cautious" rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Tigress Financial reissued a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $203.94.

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.