Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Down 0.7% – What’s Next?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) fell 0.7% on Friday . The company traded as low as $148.20 and last traded at $151.49. 10,844,220 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 43% from the average session volume of 18,931,327 shares. The stock had previously closed at $152.63.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on GOOG. Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Citizens Jmp downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $208.65.

Alphabet Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $1.80 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.04. The company’s 50 day moving average is $177.04 and its 200 day moving average is $178.43. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.54%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.94%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares in the company, valued at $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total value of $550,702.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,847 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,468,029.04. The trade was a 13.70 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 119,797 shares of company stock valued at $21,089,470. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 16,248 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,094,000 after purchasing an additional 1,041 shares during the last quarter. North Forty Two & Co. acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $281,000. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 14.4% in the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 116,776 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $19,642,000 after purchasing an additional 14,738 shares during the period. Requisite Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $927,000. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 10.9% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,184,399 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,384,039,000 after acquiring an additional 704,875 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.