Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) saw a significant decline in short interest in the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 71,090,000 shares, a decline of 10.7% from the September 15th total of 79,580,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 25,620,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.8 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on GOOGL. Truist Financial boosted their price target on Alphabet from $196.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $190.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $200.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $208.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, TD Securities increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $201.76.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.00, for a total transaction of $114,576.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 31,334 shares in the company, valued at $5,264,112. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.00, for a total value of $114,576.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 31,334 shares in the company, valued at $5,264,112. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.00, for a total transaction of $115,500.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 29,324 shares in the company, valued at $4,838,460. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 220,426 shares of company stock valued at $35,993,340 over the last 90 days. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 497,874,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $75,144,172,000 after acquiring an additional 4,064,073 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 14.4% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 57,803,291 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,724,251,000 after purchasing an additional 7,275,757 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 49,472,478 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,011,412,000 after purchasing an additional 238,403 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,178,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,310,925,000 after purchasing an additional 1,429,261 shares during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.7% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 35,412,299 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,344,778,000 after buying an additional 597,756 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL traded down $0.30 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $165.16. The company had a trading volume of 16,389,323 shares, compared to its average volume of 27,085,760. Alphabet has a 12-month low of $120.21 and a 12-month high of $191.75. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $161.76 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $168.05. The stock has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.33, a P/E/G ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a current ratio of 2.08.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. The business had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $70.60 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.44 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet will post 7.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.