Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Up 1.6% – Should You Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) traded up 1.6% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $197.07 and last traded at $196.83. 5,411,985 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 66% from the average session volume of 15,832,311 shares. The stock had previously closed at $193.77.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on GOOG shares. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Pivotal Research raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note 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, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $205.80.

Alphabet Stock Up 2.8 %

The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $189.03 and its 200-day simple moving average is $175.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.48 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.87, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.99.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its 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. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.39 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.55 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total transaction of $550,702.88. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,468,029.04. This trade represents a 13.70 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total transaction of $6,870,532.68. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares in the company, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. This trade represents a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 122,997 shares of company stock worth $22,492,464 over the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of GOOG. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 114,802,133 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $19,193,768,000 after acquiring an additional 5,655,022 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 10.3% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 33,334,082 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,573,125,000 after purchasing an additional 3,113,395 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 65.9% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 6,294,332 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,052,349,000 after acquiring an additional 2,500,621 shares in the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund increased its stake in Alphabet by 182.1% in the 3rd quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 2,526,055 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $422,331,000 after buying an additional 1,630,701 shares during the period. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 9.1% in the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 15,424,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,578,793,000 after buying an additional 1,291,274 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.