Insider Selling: Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Director Sells 101 Shares of Stock

Key Points

• Frances Arnold, a director at Alphabet Inc., sold 101 shares on June 30th for a total of $19,827.31, reducing her ownership by 0.57% to 17,490 shares.
• Alphabet announced a quarterly dividend of $0.21 per share, payable on September 15th, representing an annualized yield of 0.4% with a payout ratio of 8.95%.
• Analysts have raised their target prices for Alphabet's stock, with Guggenheim setting a new target of $210.00 and Royal Bank of Canada raising theirs to $220.00, reflecting strong market confidence.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) Director Frances Arnold sold 101 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $196.31, for a total transaction of $19,827.31. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 17,490 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,433,461.90. The trade was a 0.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

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

• On Monday, June 30th, Frances Arnold sold 121 shares of Alphabet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.72, for a total transaction of $21,867.12.
• On Friday, May 30th, Frances Arnold sold 111 shares of Alphabet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.41, for a total transaction of $19,137.51.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.4%

GOOGL stock traded down $2.77 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $189.13. The company had a trading volume of 34,777,882 shares, compared to its average volume of 38,669,572. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90. The company has a market capitalization of $2.30 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.01. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $178.32 and a 200 day moving average of $173.12. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $207.05.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.95%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on GOOGL shares. Citizens Jmp upgraded shares of Alphabet from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $220.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, June 27th. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $196.00 to $201.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $217.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, JMP Securities increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $211.39.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $24,383,677,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter worth $4,317,606,000. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $47,025,322,000 after buying an additional 22,100,902 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 16,993.2% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,483,898,000 after buying an additional 15,968,487 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $78,839,544,000 after acquiring an additional 14,307,345 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company's stock.

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.