Short Interest in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Drops By 16.0%

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) saw a large decrease in short interest in September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 36,070,000 shares, a decrease of 16.0% from the September 15th total of 42,930,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 17,910,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.0 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on GOOG shares. UBS Group decreased their target price on Alphabet from $204.00 to $187.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 7th. DA Davidson upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Pivotal Research assumed coverage on Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $215.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities cut Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Friday, June 28th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $186.90.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total value of $429,587.55. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,421,948.46. 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 can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total value of $429,587.55. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,421,948.46. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.35, for a total transaction of $3,652,875.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,182,385 shares in the company, valued at $354,310,204.75. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 220,426 shares of company stock valued at $35,993,340 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 0.7% in the second quarter. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,985 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,465,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the period. PCG Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. PCG Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,880 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $345,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the period. Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV grew its stake in Alphabet by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV now owns 3,636 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $667,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV increased its position in Alphabet by 2.0% in the second quarter. Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV now owns 2,944 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $540,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. Finally, Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 11.1% in the first quarter. Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC now owns 600 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $91,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOG stock traded down $0.16 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $166.74. 9,957,069 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 19,670,381. 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 has a 12-month low of $121.46 and a 12-month high of $193.31. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $163.05 and its 200 day moving average is $169.57. The company has a market cap of $2.06 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.22 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. The business’s revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.44 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Alphabet will post 7.64 EPS for the current 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.