Insider Selling: Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Director Sells $21,867.12 in Stock

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) Director Frances Arnold sold 121 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.72, for a total transaction of $21,867.12. Following the sale, the director owned 17,389 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,142,540.08. This trade represents a 0.69% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

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

• 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 value of $19,137.51.
• On Wednesday, April 30th, Frances Arnold sold 111 shares of Alphabet stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.85, for a total value of $17,743.35.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.5%

NASDAQ:GOOGL traded down $0.88 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $175.35. 21,979,642 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 31,340,841. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $167.02 and a 200 day moving average price of $174.16. The firm has a market cap of $2.13 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.57, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $207.05. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were given a $0.21 dividend. 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 0.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. Citizens Jmp upgraded Alphabet from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $220.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday. Citigroup reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $203.00 target price (up previously from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Westpark Capital reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. JMP Securities raised Alphabet from a "market perform" rating to a "market outperform" rating and set a $220.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $199.95.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $78,839,544,000 after buying an additional 14,307,345 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $47,025,322,000 after acquiring an additional 22,100,902 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Alphabet by 8.3% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $18,672,198,000 after acquiring an additional 7,574,417 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in Alphabet by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $13,635,878,000 after purchasing an additional 10,037,685 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.