Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading Down 3.1% – What’s Next?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s share price traded down 3.1% during trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $185.10 and last traded at $185.73. 17,017,857 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 38% from the average session volume of 27,491,689 shares. The stock had previously closed at $191.60.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on GOOGL. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $229.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Pivotal Research raised their price target on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. DA Davidson increased their target price on Alphabet from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Cantor Fitzgerald decreased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $210.62.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $191.28 and its 200 day simple moving average is $174.64. The firm has a market cap of $2.27 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.58, a PEG ratio of 1.31 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.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. On average, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 10.61%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares in the company, valued at $3,606,723.84. The trade was a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total value of $3,239,868.40. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 43,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,471,620.22. This trade represents a 27.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 89,529 shares of company stock worth $16,600,078 in the last three months. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp grew its stake in Alphabet by 0.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 222,555,548 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $36,910,838,000 after buying an additional 743,369 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 134,030,679 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,154,651,000 after purchasing an additional 2,626,431 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 7.7% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,559,240,000 after acquiring an additional 4,567,275 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 50,615,038 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,581,427,000 after buying an additional 757,138 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 38,451,718 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,278,910,000 after purchasing an additional 1,218,639 shares during 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.