Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Down 1.7% After Insider Selling

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report)'s share price fell 1.7% during trading on Friday after an insider sold shares in the company. The company traded as low as $163.90 and last traded at $164.83. 11,385,550 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 58% from the average session volume of 27,136,639 shares. The stock had previously closed at $167.63.

Specifically, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total transaction of $3,975,075.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,061,806 shares of the company's stock, valued at $364,259,266.02. The trade was a 1.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on GOOGL. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America increased their price target on Alphabet from $206.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $217.00 price target (up from $215.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have given a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $205.90.

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Alphabet Stock Down 1.7 %

The stock has a 50-day moving average of $167.64 and a 200-day moving average of $170.36. The firm has a market cap of $2.02 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.03. 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 - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.85 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.55 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet's payout ratio is presently 10.61%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc lifted its position in Alphabet by 75.0% in the second quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 140 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the period. LMR Partners LLP bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Kings Path Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at $36,000. Denver PWM LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at about $41,000. Finally, Quarry LP bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter valued at approximately $53,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.