Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Director John L. Hennessy Sells 1,500 Shares

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.80, for a total transaction of $284,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 21,824 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,142,195.20. The trade was a 6.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOG stock traded down $0.88 during trading on Monday, reaching $192.29. The stock had a trading volume of 13,150,609 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,443,883. The firm has a market cap of $2.35 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.50, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $184.55 and its two-hundred day moving average is $174.49. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $131.55 and a 52 week high of $202.88.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.39 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.55 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.42%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 10.61%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.2% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 114,802,133 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,193,768,000 after buying an additional 5,655,022 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 103,557,486 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $17,247,208,000 after acquiring an additional 259,213 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 10.3% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 33,334,082 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,573,125,000 after acquiring an additional 3,113,395 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 9.1% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 15,424,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,578,793,000 after purchasing an additional 1,291,274 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.5% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 14,657,421 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,688,743,000 after purchasing an additional 636,008 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on GOOG shares. Pivotal Research lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Scotiabank initiated coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, October 11th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $200.56.

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.