Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Down 0.8%

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s share price fell 0.8% during trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $164.06 and last traded at $165.99. 15,275,069 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 45% from the average session volume of 27,976,061 shares. The stock had previously closed at $167.28.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. KeyCorp boosted their target price on Alphabet from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $222.00 price objective (up from $215.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Roth Mkm boosted their target price on Alphabet from $202.00 to $206.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Truist Financial boosted their target price on Alphabet from $190.00 to $196.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 11th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $203.74.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm has a market cap of $2.07 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.05. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $179.22 and its 200 day moving average price is $160.15.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. The business had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $70.60 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.44 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.80, for a total value of $3,753,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,280,511 shares in the company, valued at $380,389,234.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.80, for a total transaction of $3,753,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,280,511 shares in the company, valued at approximately $380,389,234.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.85, for a total transaction of $278,775.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 30,824 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,728,640.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 122,388 shares of company stock worth $21,497,609. 11.55% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $15,441,917,000. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in Alphabet by 14.4% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 57,803,291 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,724,251,000 after purchasing an additional 7,275,757 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 493,810,251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $68,980,354,000 after purchasing an additional 6,374,756 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 39,754.9% during the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 6,025,667 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $841,725,000 after purchasing an additional 6,010,548 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4,894.1% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 5,445,396 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,606,670,000 after purchasing an additional 5,336,359 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is 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.