Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Down 0.8% – Should You Sell?

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) traded down 0.8% during trading on Monday . The company traded as low as $164.22 and last traded at $164.89. 11,378,083 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 61% from the average session volume of 29,014,833 shares. The stock had previously closed at $166.19.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $178.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Rosenblatt Securities reduced their target price on Alphabet from $205.00 to $189.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 25th. DA Davidson decreased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $199.75.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.02 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.69, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $158.21 and its 200 day moving average price is $175.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.89 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,824 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $187.43, for a total transaction of $529,302.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares in the company, valued at $2,815,948.32. The trade was a 15.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.90, for a total value of $5,066,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,652,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $413,555,306.40. The trade was a 1.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 179,324 shares of company stock valued at $30,153,353 over the last three months. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,559,240,000 after purchasing an additional 4,567,275 shares during the last quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 23,533 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,455,000 after buying an additional 207 shares during the period. Wealth Group Ltd. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 1,582 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $299,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares during the last quarter. R.H. Investment Group LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $1,475,000. Finally, Mason & Associates Inc raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 7.5% during the 4th quarter. Mason & Associates Inc now owns 7,027 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,330,000 after acquiring an additional 491 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.