Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Trading 1.1% Higher

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) rose 1.1% on Thursday . The company traded as high as $161.01 and last traded at $159.62. Approximately 5,151,586 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 74% from the average daily volume of 20,089,756 shares. The stock had previously closed at $157.81.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on GOOG shares. TD Cowen increased their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday. Wolfe Research upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $182.86.

Alphabet Trading Down 4.1 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 2.08. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $172.50 and its 200-day moving average price is $165.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.88 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. The company had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.22 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.44 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 12.27%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.92, for a total value of $266,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 3,727 shares in the company, valued at $663,107.84. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.92, for a total transaction of $266,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 3,727 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $663,107.84. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.68, for a total transaction of $3,570,300.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,137,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $339,160,251.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 200,532 shares of company stock worth $34,055,874. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $4,101,040,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 19.7% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 84,171,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,815,986,000 after purchasing an additional 13,876,534 shares during the period. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter valued at approximately $1,378,708,000. Capital International Investors boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.3% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,716,562 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,355,724,000 after buying an additional 7,470,042 shares during the period. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 51.8% during the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 6,416,150 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $976,923,000 after buying an additional 2,190,795 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Company Profile

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.