Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report)'s share price fell 1.8% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $172.84 and last traded at $173.98. 32,365,363 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 57% from the average session volume of 20,579,241 shares. The stock had previously closed at $177.23.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
GOOG has been the subject of several research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. Scotiabank cut their price target on Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 21st. Needham & Company LLC downgraded shares of Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "cautious" rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $171.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $204.88.
Read Our Latest Report on Alphabet
Alphabet Stock Performance
The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77. The firm has a market cap of $2.11 trillion, a P/E ratio of 19.40, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.01. The stock's 50 day moving average is $165.77 and its two-hundred day moving average is $176.42.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.89 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.
Alphabet Increases Dividend
The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th were paid a $0.21 dividend. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. Alphabet's payout ratio is currently 9.36%.
Insiders Place Their Bets
In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total transaction of $1,962,705.76. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 49,037 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $8,181,333.08. This represents a 19.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total transaction of $104,537.09. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,377,014.99. This trade represents a 4.21% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 195,570 shares of company stock worth $32,003,532 over the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.
Institutional Trading of Alphabet
Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $5,166,070,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the 1st quarter worth approximately $2,622,943,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 18,562.3% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,323,323 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,237,733,000 after acquiring an additional 14,246,573 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Alphabet by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $64,299,725,000 after purchasing an additional 9,687,855 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake 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 valued at $15,971,861,000 after purchasing an additional 9,243,959 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.
About Alphabet
(
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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.
Further Reading
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