Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Trading 3.8% Higher – Time to Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s stock price rose 3.8% during trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $199.18 and last traded at $198.73. Approximately 8,999,795 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 54% from the average daily volume of 19,609,055 shares. The stock had previously closed at $191.38.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $200.56.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.5 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95. The company has a market cap of $2.41 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.14, a PEG ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.02. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $174.50 and its 200 day moving average is $172.49.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 dividend yield of 0.41%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.84, for a total transaction of $230,804.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,183 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,927,257.72. The trade was a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.07, for a total value of $3,759,075.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,129,306 shares in the company, valued at approximately $355,743,153.42. This represents a 1.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 178,957 shares of company stock worth $31,358,687. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. IMS Capital Management raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% during the third quarter. IMS Capital Management now owns 33,879 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,664,000 after acquiring an additional 134 shares in the last quarter. 1ST Source Bank raised its position in Alphabet by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. 1ST Source Bank now owns 55,309 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,247,000 after purchasing an additional 1,245 shares during the period. DGS Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 2.0% in the third quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 26,962 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,508,000 after purchasing an additional 531 shares during the last quarter. Copley Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the third quarter valued at about $962,000. Finally, Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter valued at about $9,181,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.