Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price Down 1.7% – Should You Sell?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) traded down 1.7% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as low as $301.30 and last traded at $306.52. 34,330,724 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 6% from the average session volume of 36,623,094 shares. The stock had previously closed at $311.76.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on GOOGL shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Truist Financial set a $385.00 price target on Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Wolfe Research raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Citic Securities lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $366.57.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $3.71 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.36, a P/E/G ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 1.09. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $320.99 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $283.34. The company has a quick ratio of 2.01, a current ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 7.77%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.00, for a total transaction of $35,060,852.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $301.45, for a total value of $14,341,182.30. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 13,227 shares in the company, valued at $3,987,279.15. This represents a 78.25% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 2,112,380 shares of company stock worth $119,112,888. Company insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. PMV Capital Advisers LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $38,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $38,000. Bard Associates Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $52,000. Kentucky Trust Co lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 142.9% during the 4th quarter. Kentucky Trust Co now owns 170 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $53,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, Financial Gravity Companies Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at about $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc is the holding company created in 2015 to organize Google and a portfolio of businesses developing technologies beyond Google’s core internet services. Its principal operations are led by Google, which builds and operates consumer-facing products such as Google Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Workspace, as well as advertising platforms (Google Ads and AdSense) that historically generate the majority of its revenue. Google also develops consumer hardware (Pixel phones, Nest smart-home devices, Chromecast) and developer and distribution platforms such as Google Play.

Beyond Google’s consumer and advertising businesses, Alphabet invests in enterprise and infrastructure offerings through Google Cloud, which provides cloud computing, data analytics and productivity services to businesses and institutions.