Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Down 1.2% - What's Next?

Key Points

• Alphabet's shares fell by 1.2% on Thursday, with approximately 18.68 million shares traded, marking a significant 49% decline from the average daily volume.
• Analysts have mixed opinions on Alphabet, with some increasing price targets, such as Barclays raising theirs from $235.00 to $250.00, while BNP Paribas downgraded their rating to a "hold".
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.21 per share, set to be paid to shareholders of record on September 8th, which represents a 0.4% yield.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) shares dropped 1.2% on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $226.11 and last traded at $227.80. Approximately 18,680,517 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 49% from the average daily volume of 36,547,293 shares. The stock had previously closed at $230.66.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the subject of several research reports. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $235.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $232.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $191.00 to $224.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, Evercore ISI set a $240.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have given a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $221.31.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.7%

The business's 50 day moving average price is $193.49 and its 200-day moving average price is $174.80. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The company has a market cap of $2.81 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.74, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.16. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. The business had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $93.60 billion. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.95%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $3,448,820.16. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 243,400 shares of the company's stock, valued at $45,213,984. This represents a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.70, for a total transaction of $4,637,754.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 42,999 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,371,905.30. This represents a 35.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 222,210 shares of company stock valued at $41,742,155 over the last 90 days. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Norges Bank bought a new position in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $21,944,208,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter worth $4,317,606,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 16,993.2% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,483,898,000 after buying an additional 15,968,487 shares in the last quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 17,667.7% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 15,245,075 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,686,640,000 after acquiring an additional 15,159,273 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $78,839,544,000 after buying an additional 14,307,345 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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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