Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Down 4.9% - Time to Sell?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report)'s share price dropped 4.9% on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $158.54 and last traded at $155.19. Approximately 9,499,782 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 66% from the average daily volume of 28,151,791 shares. The stock had previously closed at $163.23.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on GOOGL shares. BMO Capital Markets reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $200.00 price objective (down previously from $230.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Westpark Capital upgraded shares of Alphabet to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $199.46.

Alphabet Trading Down 8.3 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. The company's 50 day moving average price is $159.92 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $175.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.82 trillion, a PE ratio of 18.59, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 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 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.89 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.36%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $156.16, for a total transaction of $5,075,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,685,196 shares in the company, valued at approximately $419,320,207.36. The trade was a 1.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 2,824 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $187.43, for a total value of $529,302.32. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares in the company, valued at $2,815,948.32. This trade represents a 15.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 146,824 shares of company stock worth $25,086,603 over the last three months. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $47,025,322,000 after purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $18,672,198,000 after buying an additional 7,574,417 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 16.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $13,635,878,000 after buying an additional 10,037,685 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Alphabet by 17.0% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $13,178,470,000 after acquiring an additional 10,135,430 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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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