Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Trading Down 2.7% After Insider Selling

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) shares dropped 2.7% during mid-day trading on Monday after an insider sold shares in the company. The company traded as low as $156.60 and last traded at $163.90. Approximately 11,096,265 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 46% from the average daily volume of 20,422,811 shares. The stock had previously closed at $168.40.

Specifically, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.22, for a total transaction of $3,897,450.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,258,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $391,132,665.42. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.22, for a total value of $3,897,450.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,258,011 shares in the company, valued at $391,132,665.42. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.86, for a total transaction of $118,572.52. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,209,888.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 122,308 shares of company stock worth $21,933,775 over the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently weighed in on GOOG shares. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $165.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Rosenblatt Securities downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $182.86.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The company has a fifty day moving average price of $179.64 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $163.12. The firm has a market cap of $1.98 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 2.08.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. The company had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $84.22 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.44 EPS. Alphabet’s revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.62 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 9th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 3.07%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $4,101,040,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 19.7% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 84,171,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,815,986,000 after acquiring an additional 13,876,534 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the first quarter worth $1,378,708,000. Capital International Investors increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.3% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,716,562 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,355,724,000 after acquiring an additional 7,470,042 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 198.7% during the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 3,882,882 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $547,215,000 after buying an additional 2,583,128 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

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.