Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading Down 3.2% – What’s Next?

by · The Markets Daily

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGLGet Free Report)’s share price fell 3.2% during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $296.12 and last traded at $296.72. 43,242,083 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 18% from the average session volume of 36,699,770 shares. The stock had previously closed at $306.57.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. CIBC increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet to $315.00 in a research note on Monday, October 20th. DA Davidson reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $280.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $315.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, December 2nd. Finally, KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $300.00 price target (up previously from $265.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have issued a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $315.18.

View Our Latest Stock Analysis on GOOGL

Alphabet Stock Down 3.2%

The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $285.51 and a 200-day moving average price of $231.90. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The firm has a market cap of $3.58 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.26, a PEG ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.07.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGLGet Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.00% and a net margin of 32.23%.The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 8th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.28%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.66, for a total value of $32,401.32. Following the transaction, the director owned 18,104 shares in the company, valued at $5,750,916.64. This trade represents a 0.56% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.06, for a total transaction of $168,036.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 4,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,264,750.96. This represents a 11.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 190,250 shares of company stock valued at $52,387,348 over the last three months. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at $31,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 36.4% in the second quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 67 shares during the period. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at about $53,000. iSAM Funds UK Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at about $53,000. Finally, Corsicana & Co. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at about $54,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

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.

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