Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Up 0.3%

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s share price traded up 0.3% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $164.22 and last traded at $164.09. 2,288,657 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 89% from the average session volume of 20,102,619 shares. The stock had previously closed at $163.64.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. TD Cowen lifted their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Oppenheimer cut their price objective on Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Wolfe Research raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, DA Davidson raised Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $179.29.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.2 %

The company has a market capitalization of $2.01 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.17, a P/E/G ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a current ratio of 2.08. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $165.32 and a 200 day simple moving average of $167.65.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $84.22 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.44 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 9th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 12.27%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total transaction of $5,570,188.20. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 312,210 shares in the company, valued at $50,765,346. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $186.74, for a total value of $4,201,650.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,227,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $415,941,874.90. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total value of $5,570,188.20. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 312,210 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,765,346. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 203,367 shares of company stock worth $34,079,756. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Capital International Investors boosted its stake in Alphabet by 9.3% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,716,562 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,355,724,000 after purchasing an additional 7,470,042 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 19.7% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 84,171,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,815,986,000 after purchasing an additional 13,876,534 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in Alphabet by 2.2% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 45,731,826 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,963,128,000 after purchasing an additional 979,083 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% during the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 35,558,778 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,414,179,000 after acquiring an additional 684,968 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sanders Capital LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 28,558,000 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,024,679,000 after acquiring an additional 813,428 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% 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.