Insider Selling: Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Director Sells 103 Shares of Stock

Key Points

• Frances Arnold, a director at Alphabet, sold 103 shares of stock at an average price of $243.13, totaling approximately $25,042.39, reducing her ownership to 17,284 shares.
• Alphabet's recent earnings showed EPS of $2.31, surpassing analysts' expectations, with revenue reported at $96.43 billion for the quarter.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.21 per share, reflecting an annualized yield of 0.3%, and has a low payout ratio of 8.95%.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) Director Frances Arnold sold 103 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.13, for a total value of $25,042.39. Following the sale, the director directly owned 17,284 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,202,258.92. This represents a 0.59% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

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

• On Thursday, August 28th, Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of Alphabet stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $207.80, for a total value of $21,195.60.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock traded down $0.95 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $243.10. The company's stock had a trading volume of 34,690,388 shares, compared to its average volume of 39,737,064. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90. The company has a market cap of $2.94 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.89, a PEG ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $256.00. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $218.05 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $184.24.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 8th. Alphabet's payout ratio is presently 8.95%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Beddow Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 2.0% in the second quarter. Beddow Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,510 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $445,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Gimbal Financial boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. Gimbal Financial now owns 2,776 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $489,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Missouri Trust & Investment Co raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Missouri Trust & Investment Co now owns 16,916 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,981,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the period. Silver Coast Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Silver Coast Investments LLC now owns 4,317 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $761,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Finally, North Berkeley Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. North Berkeley Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,200 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $740,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on GOOGL shares. Wall Street Zen cut Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Sunday, September 21st. Loop Capital restated a "hold" rating and set a $190.00 target price (up previously from $165.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. JMP Securities increased their price objective on Alphabet from $250.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a report on Friday, September 19th. UBS Group upped their target price on Alphabet from $192.00 to $202.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Susquehanna increased their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a "positive" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-three have issued a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $235.63.

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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