Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price Down 1.1% – Here’s What Happened

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) were down 1.1% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $316.79 and last traded at $319.95. Approximately 51,049,103 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 39% from the average daily volume of 36,829,996 shares. The stock had previously closed at $323.44.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus set a $333.00 price objective on Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $260.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $288.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Melius Research increased their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $255.00 in a report on Thursday, September 25th. Finally, BNP Paribas assumed coverage on Alphabet in a research report on Monday. They set an “outperform” rating and a $355.00 target price for the company. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have given a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $307.84.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $3.86 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $265.17 and a 200-day simple moving average of $216.20. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 36.08%. The business had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.28%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $296.64, for a total transaction of $9,640,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,304,619 shares in the company, valued at approximately $683,642,180.16. This represents a 1.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $288.26, for a total transaction of $800,786.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 11,739 shares in the company, valued at $3,383,884.14. This trade represents a 19.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 225,174 shares of company stock worth $58,095,223. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 242.9% during the 1st quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 168 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. IMA Advisory Services Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter valued at about $28,000. NBZ Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 85.7% during the first quarter. NBZ Investment Advisors LLC now owns 195 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet during the second quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. grew its position in Alphabet by 36.4% in the 2nd quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

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.