Kavitark Ram Shriram Sells 10,500 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $1,837,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 261,966 shares in the company, valued at $45,844,050. The trade was a 3.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

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

• On Thursday, May 22nd, Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 9,000 shares of Alphabet stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $1,575,000.00.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock traded up $4.43 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $172.90. 37,917,640 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 29,780,744. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.10 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 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 business has a fifty day simple moving average of $158.87 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $174.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released 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. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.89 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet's payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on GOOGL. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. DZ Bank cut Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $198.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $200.00 target price (down previously from $230.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $199.75.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Jacobi Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLC now owns 42,811 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $6,620,000 after purchasing an additional 2,127 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 4.7% during the 1st quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 398,885 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $61,684,000 after acquiring an additional 17,933 shares during the last quarter. SWS Partners raised its stake in Alphabet by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. SWS Partners now owns 14,550 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,250,000 after acquiring an additional 331 shares during the last quarter. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 6.0% during the 1st quarter. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC now owns 96,640 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $14,944,000 after acquiring an additional 5,504 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Triune Financial Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $233,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.