John Kent Walker Sells 17,690 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) insider John Kent Walker sold 17,690 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.51, for a total transaction of $3,281,671.90. Following the sale, the insider now owns 43,111 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,997,521.61. This represents a 29.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

John Kent Walker also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, December 30th, John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of Alphabet stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total value of $3,239,868.40.

Alphabet Stock Down 2.7 %

Shares of GOOG traded down $5.06 on Friday, hitting $181.58. 19,447,412 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 17,667,480. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $131.55 and a one year high of $208.70. The company has a market capitalization of $2.21 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.00. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $194.02 and a 200 day simple moving average of $177.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business 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 $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Swedbank AB raised its position in Alphabet by 0.6% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 8,338,900 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,394,181,000 after purchasing an additional 51,226 shares during the period. Community Financial Services Group LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Community Financial Services Group LLC now owns 78,118 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $13,061,000 after purchasing an additional 1,089 shares during the period. Integrity Wealth Solutions LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 15.4% in the third quarter. Integrity Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 4,591 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $768,000 after buying an additional 612 shares in the last quarter. Horst & Graben Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 16.0% during the 3rd quarter. Horst & Graben Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,182 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $365,000 after purchasing an additional 301 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MPS Loria Financial Planners LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 6.3% during the third quarter. MPS Loria Financial Planners LLC now owns 5,266 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $880,000 after buying an additional 313 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently weighed in on GOOG shares. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Pivotal Research boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup upped their target price on Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Scotiabank raised their target price on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $209.13.

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.