Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Trading Up 0.4% – Still a Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) shares traded up 0.4% on Friday . The company traded as high as $201.93 and last traded at $200.35. 3,501,939 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 77% from the average session volume of 15,318,407 shares. The stock had previously closed at $199.58.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on GOOG. Barclays upped their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Pivotal Research raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $200.56.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.1 %

The firm has a market cap of $2.47 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.74, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.99. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $187.39 and its 200 day moving average price is $175.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.55 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.40%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 10.61%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.36, for a total value of $3,990,600.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,084,306 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $369,672,512.16. The trade was a 1.07 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.78, for a total transaction of $1,898,190.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 330,466 shares in the company, valued at approximately $59,741,643.48. The trade was a 3.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 133,387 shares of company stock valued at $24,368,654. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Harrell Investment Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Harrell Investment Partners LLC now owns 5,659 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,078,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Redhawk Wealth Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Redhawk Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 5,073 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $966,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Investment Advisory Group LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Investment Advisory Group LLC now owns 7,684 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,463,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,275 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $243,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sunburst Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.1% during the third quarter. Sunburst Financial Group LLC now owns 2,959 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $495,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. 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.