Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Director Sells $1,837,500.00 in Stock

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were 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 owns 261,966 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,844,050. The trade was a 3.85% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available 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 transaction of $1,575,000.00.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOGL traded down $2.40 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $168.47. 35,166,008 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 29,660,525. The stock has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05. The company has a 50 day moving average of $158.42 and a 200-day moving average of $174.89. 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 quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal 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 issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.50%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is 9.36%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Rockbridge Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,119,000. Optivise Advisory Services LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,464 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,035,000 after buying an additional 403 shares during the last quarter. Community Bank N.A. raised its stake in Alphabet by 6.4% during the 4th quarter. Community Bank N.A. now owns 46,173 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $8,741,000 after acquiring an additional 2,790 shares in the last quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd boosted its stake in Alphabet by 30.0% in the fourth quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd now owns 61,792 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $11,816,000 after acquiring an additional 14,262 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Absolute Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 14.0% during the fourth quarter. Absolute Capital Management LLC now owns 2,096 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $401,000 after purchasing an additional 258 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have commented on GOOGL shares. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $200.00 price target (down from $230.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Citigroup raised 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. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on Alphabet from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 31st. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, JMP Securities reiterated a "market perform" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $199.75.

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.

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