Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Director Sells $5,374,012.74 in Stock

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 29,066 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.89, for a total transaction of $5,374,012.74. Following the sale, the director now owns 272,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,376,238.74. This represents a 9.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Kavitark Ram Shriram also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, December 10th, Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of Alphabet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total transaction of $6,870,532.68.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOG opened at $181.58 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $131.55 and a fifty-two week high of $208.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. The stock has a market cap of $2.21 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.00. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $194.02 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $177.22.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.44%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 117,991,725 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,470,344,000 after acquiring an additional 3,189,592 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake 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 purchasing an additional 1,219,606 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its holdings 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 valued at $17,376,706,000 after purchasing an additional 5,758,244 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 16.1% during the fourth 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 boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.8% during the fourth 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 buying an additional 294,556 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on GOOG shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup increased their price objective on Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” 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. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target 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.