Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) traded up 0.3% during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $159.19 and last traded at $158.77. 3,750,508 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 81% from the average session volume of 20,103,686 shares. The stock had previously closed at $158.37.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on GOOG shares. Rosenblatt Securities cut Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Friday, June 28th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Wolfe Research raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. DA Davidson raised shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $182.86.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The firm’s fifty day moving average is $167.82 and its 200-day moving average is $166.64. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.99 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 the consensus estimate of $84.22 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. The business’s revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.44 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.50%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 12.27%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 312,210 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,765,346. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total value of $125,126.54. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 30,650 shares in the company, valued at $5,623,355.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total value of $5,570,188.20. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 312,210 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,765,346. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 202,667 shares of company stock worth $34,341,581. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Park Avenue Securities LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 11.9% during the 1st quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 109,878 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $16,730,000 after acquiring an additional 11,646 shares in the last quarter. Colonial River Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 5.3% in the second quarter. Colonial River Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,126 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $390,000 after buying an additional 107 shares during the last quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 4.6% in the first quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 187,229 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $28,508,000 after buying an additional 8,201 shares in the last quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 11,366 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,097,000 after buying an additional 498 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alliance Wealth Management Group boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 93.6% during the 1st quarter. Alliance Wealth Management Group now owns 3,910 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $595,000 after acquiring an additional 1,890 shares in the last quarter. 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.