Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Trading Down 0.3% – Should You Sell?

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) dropped 0.3% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $190.49 and last traded at $192.71. Approximately 8,495,869 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 52% from the average daily volume of 17,521,742 shares. The stock had previously closed at $193.30.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOG has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Pivotal Research raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $209.13.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.1 %

The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $192.33 and its 200 day moving average price is $176.03. The company has a market capitalization of $2.36 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.58, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total value of $232,950.47. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 23,515 shares in the company, valued at $4,007,191.15. This represents a 5.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total transaction of $3,975,075.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,061,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $364,259,266.02. This represents a 1.08 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 89,529 shares of company stock valued at $16,600,078 over the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. M&G PLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at approximately $2,240,000. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 14.4% during the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 116,776 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,642,000 after acquiring an additional 14,738 shares in the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.4% during the third quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 301,980 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $50,488,000 after acquiring an additional 4,292 shares in the last quarter. Requisite Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $927,000. Finally, Stevens Capital Management LP raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 172.9% during the third quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP now owns 91,237 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,254,000 after acquiring an additional 57,810 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.