Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Down 1.5% - Here's What Happened

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) fell 1.5% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $173.20 and last traded at $173.32. 28,640,034 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 6% from the average session volume of 30,477,180 shares. The stock had previously closed at $175.95.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Wedbush set a $190.00 price objective on Alphabet and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. UBS Group set a $195.00 price objective on Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $199.75.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.5%

The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $164.17 and a 200 day simple moving average of $174.73. 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 $2.10 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.01.

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

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total value 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 represents a 4.21% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This trade represents a 1.18% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 195,570 shares of company stock worth $32,003,532. 11.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Howe & Rusling Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.3% in the 1st quarter. Howe & Rusling Inc. now owns 5,855 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $905,000 after buying an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5.3% in the 1st quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 246,867 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $38,173,000 after buying an additional 12,386 shares in the last quarter. Maple Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 7.1% in the 1st quarter. Maple Capital Management Inc. now owns 9,913 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,533,000 after buying an additional 658 shares in the last quarter. Lynx Investment Advisory raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.3% in the 1st quarter. Lynx Investment Advisory now owns 14,304 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,212,000 after buying an additional 591 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Peterson Wealth Management raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.2% in the 1st quarter. Peterson Wealth Management now owns 16,940 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,620,000 after buying an additional 521 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is 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.