Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Insider John Kent Walker Sells 17,690 Shares

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) insider John Kent Walker sold 17,690 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.51, for a total transaction of $3,281,671.90. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 43,111 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,997,521.61. This represents a 29.09 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

John Kent Walker also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, December 30th, John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of Alphabet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total transaction of $3,239,868.40.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $186.85 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $194.22 and a 200 day simple moving average of $177.08. The stock has a market cap of $2.28 trillion, a PE ratio of 23.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $131.55 and a 12 month high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. Research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 9.94%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. FMR LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 117,991,725 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $22,470,344,000 after buying an additional 3,189,592 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 104,777,092 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,894,651,000 after acquiring an additional 1,219,606 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 6.7% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 91,236,069 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $17,376,706,000 after purchasing an additional 5,758,244 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,098,042 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,873,751,000 after purchasing an additional 7,917,625 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 39,148,500 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,455,571,000 after purchasing an additional 294,556 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Citizens Jmp cut shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Barclays lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Pivotal Research upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $209.13.

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.