Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Up 0.3% – Here’s What Happened

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) shot up 0.3% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $169.92 and last traded at $169.23. 9,553,909 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 48% from the average session volume of 18,336,506 shares. The stock had previously closed at $168.66.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GOOG. Benchmark reaffirmed a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Citizens Jmp lowered Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $209.13.

Alphabet Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.10 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.00. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $191.63 and a 200 day moving average price of $177.88.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. On average, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.94%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the director now owns 282,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $52,329,576.64. This trade represents a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $197.55, for a total value of $559,856.70. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,085,531.55. This trade represents a 12.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 134,316 shares of company stock worth $25,062,887. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Swedbank AB increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.6% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 8,338,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,394,181,000 after purchasing an additional 51,226 shares during the last quarter. Janney Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 18.2% during the third quarter. Janney Capital Management LLC now owns 13,456 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,250,000 after acquiring an additional 2,069 shares during the last quarter. Allen Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 6.4% during the third quarter. Allen Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,332 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $223,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. GFS Advisors LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 10,976.6% during the third quarter. GFS Advisors LLC now owns 35,556 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,945,000 after acquiring an additional 35,235 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in Alphabet by 11.0% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 547,237 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $90,010,000 after acquiring an additional 54,262 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.