Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Director Frances Arnold Sells 111 Shares

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) Director Frances Arnold sold 111 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.85, for a total transaction of $17,743.35. Following the sale, the director now owns 17,158 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,742,706.30. The trade was a 0.64 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Frances Arnold also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, March 28th, Frances Arnold sold 111 shares of Alphabet stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.42, for a total transaction of $18,028.62.
• On Friday, February 28th, Frances Arnold sold 121 shares of Alphabet stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.30, for a total transaction of $20,606.30.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL traded up $2.73 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $164.03. 25,689,744 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 28,219,299. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $160.19 and a 200-day moving average price of $175.34. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $207.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.99 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.38, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.89 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is 9.36%.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Markel Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Markel Group Inc. now owns 557,000 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $86,134,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000 shares during the period. Sachetta LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 46.9% in the first quarter. Sachetta LLC now owns 4,482 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $693,000 after buying an additional 1,431 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 55.5% in the first quarter. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. now owns 28,454 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $4,400,000 after acquiring an additional 10,150 shares during the period. Hardy Reed LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Hardy Reed LLC now owns 50,972 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $7,882,000 after acquiring an additional 311 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 10.8% during the 1st quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 1,671,841 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $258,533,000 after acquiring an additional 162,551 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. JMP Securities reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 10th. DA Davidson dropped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. DZ Bank downgraded shares of Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $198.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Mizuho decreased their target price on Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Roth Mkm reissued a "buy" rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. 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 data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $199.46.

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.