Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Down 0.8%

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shares traded down 0.8% during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $168.74 and last traded at $169.93. 5,198,394 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 83% from the average session volume of 30,437,980 shares. The stock had previously closed at $171.25.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group increased their target price on Alphabet from $150.00 to $166.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Wedbush increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $175.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $173.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $190.60.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a current ratio of 2.15. The company has a market capitalization of $2.09 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.02. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $151.40 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $142.83.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.49 by $0.40. The company had revenue of $80.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $66.04 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 25.90% and a return on equity of 29.52%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.17 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 10th.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 2,100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.76, for a total transaction of $369,096.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 5,891 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,035,402.16. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 2,100 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.76, for a total transaction of $369,096.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 5,891 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,035,402.16. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $143.08, for a total transaction of $3,219,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,355,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $336,980,728.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 252,629 shares of company stock worth $37,091,240. Insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $15,441,917,000. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 227,317,469 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $29,746,764,000 after buying an additional 12,070,681 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 493,810,251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $68,980,354,000 after acquiring an additional 6,374,756 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 39,754.9% in the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 6,025,667 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $841,725,000 after acquiring an additional 6,010,548 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 4,894.1% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 5,445,396 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,606,670,000 after acquiring an additional 5,336,359 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.