Frances Arnold Sells 121 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Director Frances Arnold sold 121 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.30, for a total value of $20,606.30. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 16,938 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,884,541.40. The trade was a 0.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

Frances Arnold also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Thursday, January 30th, Frances Arnold sold 110 shares of Alphabet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total transaction of $22,000.00.
• On Tuesday, December 31st, Frances Arnold sold 111 shares of Alphabet stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.49, for a total transaction of $21,366.39.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of Alphabet stock traded up $1.16 on Friday, hitting $171.37. 18,832,179 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 18,158,080. 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 company has a market cap of $2.09 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.24, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.00. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $192.59 and its 200-day moving average price is $177.59. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $131.55 and a 52 week high of $208.70.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 117,991,725 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,470,344,000 after buying an additional 3,189,592 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.2% during the 4th 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 lifted its position in 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 acquiring an additional 5,758,244 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in Alphabet by 16.1% in 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 acquiring an additional 7,917,625 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors grew its holdings in Alphabet by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 39,148,500 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,455,571,000 after purchasing an additional 294,556 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on GOOG. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Scotiabank lifted their target price on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Benchmark restated a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average 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.