Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading Down 1.7% - Here's Why

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report)'s stock price fell 1.7% during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $155.40 and last traded at $157.37. 7,693,688 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 73% from the average session volume of 28,142,431 shares. The stock had previously closed at $160.16.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOGL has been the topic of several analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Wedbush set a $190.00 price objective on Alphabet and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. DZ Bank downgraded Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $198.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. UBS Group set a $195.00 price objective on Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $198.89.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The business's 50-day moving average price is $161.20 and its 200-day moving average price is $175.49. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a market cap of $1.91 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.51, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its 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. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.89 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect 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 will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.53%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,685,196 shares in the company, valued at approximately $419,320,207.36. The trade was a 1.20 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 1,340 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. The trade was a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 148,163 shares of company stock worth $25,361,647 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $24,383,677,000. FMR LLC raised its holdings 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 worth $47,025,322,000 after acquiring an additional 22,100,902 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 16,993.2% in 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 during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its position in shares of 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. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 16.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $13,635,878,000 after purchasing an additional 10,037,685 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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