John Kent Walker Sells 11,764 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total value of $1,962,705.76. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 49,037 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,181,333.08. This represents a 19.35 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

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

• On Tuesday, February 18th, John Kent Walker sold 17,690 shares of Alphabet stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.51, for a total transaction of $3,281,671.90.
• On Monday, December 30th, John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of Alphabet stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total transaction of $3,239,868.40.

Alphabet Trading Down 4.9 %

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $154.33 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $179.66 and a 200-day moving average of $176.72. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a market cap of $1.88 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.17, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $147.22 and a 1-year high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly 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 net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.52%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.94%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Robert W. Baird restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $205.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $220.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $210.59.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 10.1% during the 3rd quarter. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,186 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $363,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares in the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc raised its stake in Alphabet by 6.8% during the 3rd quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 728,575 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $120,834,000 after buying an additional 46,677 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 3.1% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,283,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,871,384,000 after acquiring an additional 337,031 shares in the last quarter. Apollon Financial LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 0.3% in the third quarter. Apollon Financial LLC now owns 49,192 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,158,000 after acquiring an additional 147 shares during the period. Finally, OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd grew its stake in Alphabet by 15.7% in the third quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd now owns 801,353 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $132,351,000 after acquiring an additional 108,787 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.