Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Director Kavitark Ram Shriram Sells 18,566 Shares

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $3,448,820.16. Following the sale, the director owned 243,400 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $45,213,984. This trade represents a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

Kavitark Ram Shriram also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, July 18th, Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 15,000 shares of Alphabet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $2,786,400.00.
• On Thursday, May 22nd, Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 9,000 shares of Alphabet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $1,575,000.00.
• On Thursday, May 22nd, Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of Alphabet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $1,837,500.00.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL traded up $5.04 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $190.10. 45,455,383 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 32,234,334. The business's 50-day moving average price is $172.90 and its 200 day moving average price is $172.89. The company has a market cap of $2.31 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $207.05. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.89 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. 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 0.44%. Alphabet's payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co now owns 27,075 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $4,187,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Rockbridge Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,119,000. Cypress Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4.1% in the first quarter. Cypress Capital LLC now owns 14,310 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,213,000 after buying an additional 563 shares during the period. Optivise Advisory Services LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,464 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,035,000 after buying an additional 403 shares during the period. Finally, Community Bank N.A. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. Community Bank N.A. now owns 46,173 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $8,741,000 after buying an additional 2,790 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOGL has been the topic of several research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $208.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Wedbush set a $190.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $202.22.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.