Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Down 0.1% – What’s Next?

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) dropped 0.1% during trading on Monday . The stock traded as low as $191.63 and last traded at $192.76. Approximately 4,058,288 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 80% from the average daily volume of 19,830,713 shares. The stock had previously closed at $192.96.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on GOOG. Scotiabank assumed coverage on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, October 11th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 price target on the stock. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $200.56.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.2 %

The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $176.14 and a 200-day simple moving average of $172.84. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock has a market cap of $2.39 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.02.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.55 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.41%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.61%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.84, for a total value of $230,804.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,183 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,927,257.72. The trade was a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,802 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.47, for a total transaction of $2,780,226.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 43,999 shares in the company, valued at $7,280,514.53. This represents a 27.63 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 178,257 shares of company stock valued at $31,243,187 over the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.2% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 114,802,133 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,193,768,000 after purchasing an additional 5,655,022 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 103,557,486 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $17,247,208,000 after buying an additional 259,213 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 10.3% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 33,334,082 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,573,125,000 after buying an additional 3,113,395 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.1% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 15,424,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,578,793,000 after buying an additional 1,291,274 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 14,657,421 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,688,743,000 after acquiring an additional 636,008 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.