Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Down 2.1% on Insider Selling

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s stock price traded down 2.1% during trading on Tuesday following insider selling activity. The company traded as low as $276.87 and last traded at $278.06. 17,806,410 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 24% from the average session volume of 23,449,363 shares. The stock had previously closed at $284.12.

Specifically, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $291.80, for a total value of $32,681.60. Following the sale, the director owned 18,004 shares in the company, valued at $5,253,567.20. This represents a 0.62% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on GOOG. TD Cowen upped their price target on Alphabet from $270.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Alphabet from $210.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Alphabet from $300.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.81.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.1%

The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $246.09 and a 200 day simple moving average of $202.22. The stock has a market cap of $3.36 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.42, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 36.08% and a net margin of 32.23%.Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.12 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 416,753,033 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $73,927,821,000 after purchasing an additional 5,182,111 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 188,914,125 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $33,511,477,000 after purchasing an additional 2,428,266 shares during the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 580,897.4% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 135,087,705 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $23,963,208,000 after purchasing an additional 135,064,454 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 107,760,033 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,022,926,000 after purchasing an additional 441,177 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.9% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,971,861,000 after purchasing an additional 9,243,959 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Company Profile

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.