John Hennessy Sells 600 Shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Director John Hennessy sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $308.19, for a total transaction of $184,914.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 3,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,206,872.04. The trade was a 13.29% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG traded down $9.67 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $298.06. The stock had a trading volume of 28,380,620 shares, compared to its average volume of 27,439,056. 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 company has a market cap of $3.60 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.39, a PEG ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.07. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $142.66 and a fifty-two week high of $328.67. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $287.17 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $233.11.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 35.00%. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.12 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 8th were given 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 payout ratio is 8.28%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 5.6% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 120,253 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,901,000 after acquiring an additional 6,410 shares during the period. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.0% during the first quarter. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. now owns 25,146 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,929,000 after purchasing an additional 976 shares during the period. Quantbot Technologies LP grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 411.1% in the 1st quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 13,028 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,035,000 after buying an additional 10,479 shares during the last quarter. Maven Securities LTD boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 167.6% in the first quarter. Maven Securities LTD now owns 33,436 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,224,000 after acquiring an additional 20,939 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Texas Capital Bank Wealth Management Services Inc increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 38.1% during the first quarter. Texas Capital Bank Wealth Management Services Inc now owns 13,273 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,074,000 after buying an additional 3,665 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Alphabet from $210.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 27th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Phillip Securities raised Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $313.04.

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.