Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading Up 0.9% – What’s Next?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s share price traded up 0.9% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $174.20 and last traded at $174.08. 4,489,808 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 83% from the average session volume of 27,038,992 shares. The stock had previously closed at $172.49.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Scotiabank raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $204.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have assigned a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $205.90.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.6 %

The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $166.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of $170.36. The company has a market cap of $2.18 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.62, a P/E/G ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.55 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.61%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.41, for a total transaction of $1,862,805.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 319,966 shares in the company, valued at approximately $56,765,168.06. This trade represents a 3.18 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.44, for a total value of $109,420.08. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 32,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,136,807.48. This represents a 2.09 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 184,295 shares of company stock valued at $30,698,791 in the last 90 days. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at about $630,000. Unigestion Holding SA grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 550.1% during the 3rd quarter. Unigestion Holding SA now owns 92,199 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,291,000 after purchasing an additional 78,017 shares during the period. Hohimer Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 25.3% during the 3rd quarter. Hohimer Wealth Management LLC now owns 43,897 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,280,000 after purchasing an additional 8,851 shares during the period. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 18.8% during the 3rd quarter. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC now owns 86,135 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $14,285,000 after purchasing an additional 13,642 shares during the period. Finally, Fortem Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 93.3% during the 3rd quarter. Fortem Financial Group LLC now owns 17,080 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,833,000 after purchasing an additional 8,242 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

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.