Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Down 1.1% - What's Next?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) fell 1.1% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $174.55 and last traded at $174.82. 11,234,198 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 64% from the average session volume of 31,525,119 shares. The stock had previously closed at $176.79.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on GOOGL. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Westpark Capital reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Roth Mkm reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $200.13.

Alphabet Price 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 stock has a market cap of $2.11 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.41, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.00. The company's 50 day moving average is $169.03 and its 200 day moving average is $173.67.

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

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th were issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the business'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 transaction of $105,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 6,813 shares in the company, valued at $1,192,275. The trade was a 8.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total transaction of $5,801,900.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,559,892 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $456,991,919.84. This represents a 1.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 215,643 shares of company stock worth $36,330,928 over the last ninety days. 11.55% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Rockbridge Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $3,119,000. Cypress Capital LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 4.1% in the first quarter. Cypress Capital LLC now owns 14,310 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,213,000 after acquiring an additional 563 shares in the last quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,464 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,035,000 after acquiring an additional 403 shares in the last quarter. Community Bank N.A. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. Community Bank N.A. now owns 46,173 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $8,741,000 after acquiring an additional 2,790 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Falcon Wealth Planning raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 15.7% during the first quarter. Falcon Wealth Planning now owns 9,898 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,531,000 after purchasing an additional 1,340 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Company Profile

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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