Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Down 0.5% – Should You Sell?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s share price fell 0.5% during trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $191.60 and last traded at $194.40. 5,801,970 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 60% from the average session volume of 14,335,881 shares. The stock had previously closed at $195.39.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Pivotal Research lifted their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Scotiabank assumed coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, October 11th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 price target for the company. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $200.56.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.6 %

The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $183.71 and its 200-day simple moving average is $174.52. The stock has a market cap of $2.38 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.75, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.41%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 10.61%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.95, for a total value of $247,425.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 26,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,342,143.80. The trade was a 5.39 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.23, for a total value of $473,929.82. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 26,349 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,406,343.27. This represents a 9.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 155,887 shares of company stock valued at $27,996,356 in the last quarter. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Sunburst Financial Group LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Sunburst Financial Group LLC now owns 2,959 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $495,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Johnson Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.6% during the third quarter. Johnson Financial Group LLC now owns 2,360 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $395,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the period. Fortitude Family Office LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Fortitude Family Office LLC now owns 8,323 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,585,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Phillips Financial Management LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 1.6% during the third quarter. Phillips Financial Management LLC now owns 3,852 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $644,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the period. Finally, Goodman Advisory Group LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.3% in the third quarter. Goodman Advisory Group LLC now owns 2,674 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $447,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

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.