Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Insider John Kent Walker Sells 17,816 Shares

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total transaction of $4,408,034.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 42,985 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,635,348.70. This trade represents a 29.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.

John Kent Walker also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, August 4th, John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of Alphabet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.70, for a total value of $4,637,754.00.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $244.90 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $219.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $184.66. The company has a market capitalization of $2.96 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.08, a PEG ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $256.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.16. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%.The business had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.60 billion. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th were paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.95%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wolfe Research boosted their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $290.00 in a report on Tuesday. Loop Capital reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $190.00 price target (up from $165.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st. Susquehanna raised their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Wedbush raised their price target on Alphabet from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have assigned a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $237.10.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 516,559,609 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $91,033,300,000 after purchasing an additional 6,733,278 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $40,524,841,000 after buying an additional 4,008,374 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 141,615,284 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $24,857,017,000 after buying an additional 4,224,497 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $21,944,208,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 44,151,820 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,780,875,000 after acquiring an additional 503,306 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% 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.