Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Down 1.3% - What's Next?

Key Points

• Alphabet's shares fell 1.3% during mid-day trading, closing at $242.21, with a traded volume down 24% from its average.
• Analyst ratings for Alphabet are largely positive, with a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a target price of $241.00.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.21 per share, indicating a 0.3% yield and an 8.95% payout ratio.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) was down 1.3% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $239.68 and last traded at $242.21. Approximately 18,018,334 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 24% from the average daily volume of 23,645,938 shares. The stock had previously closed at $245.46.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently issued reports on GOOG shares. KeyCorp set a $265.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $270.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday. Mizuho raised shares of Alphabet to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, September 29th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $210.00 target price (up from $185.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $241.00.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $2.93 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.00. The stock's 50-day moving average is $226.01 and its 200-day moving average is $189.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.67 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. Alphabet's revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.89 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet's payout ratio is 8.95%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 953 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $241.20, for a total value of $229,863.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 17,294 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,171,312.80. The trade was a 5.22% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.44, for a total transaction of $149,664.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 5,716 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,425,799.04. This trade represents a 9.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 276,738 shares of company stock worth $59,135,475 over the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 416,753,033 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $73,927,821,000 after purchasing an additional 5,182,111 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 188,914,125 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $33,511,477,000 after purchasing an additional 2,428,266 shares in the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 580,897.4% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 135,087,705 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $23,963,208,000 after purchasing an additional 135,064,454 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 107,760,033 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $19,022,926,000 after purchasing an additional 441,177 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.9% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $15,971,861,000 after purchasing an additional 9,243,959 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% 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.

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