Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Short Interest Down 7.6% in December

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was the target of a large drop in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 65,560,000 shares, a drop of 7.6% from the December 15th total of 70,960,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 27,510,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.4 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently commented on GOOGL. Pivotal Research increased their price target on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Alphabet from $212.00 to $232.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $208.15.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.6 %

Alphabet stock traded up $3.09 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $196.00. 27,621,897 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 23,105,888. Alphabet has a 12 month low of $130.66 and a 12 month high of $201.42. 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 company has a market cap of $2.40 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.99, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.98. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $184.43 and a two-hundred day moving average of $173.42.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.55 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Alphabet will post 8.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.41%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 10.61%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 282,832 shares in the company, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. This trade represents a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.42, for a total value of $234,331.14. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 26,349 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,516,745.58. This represents a 4.93 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 133,387 shares of company stock worth $24,368,654 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Smallwood Wealth Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $220,000. New Century Financial Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 43.4% in the fourth quarter. New Century Financial Group LLC now owns 20,348 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,902,000 after purchasing an additional 6,160 shares during the last quarter. FCG Investment Co raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. FCG Investment Co now owns 30,369 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,749,000 after purchasing an additional 1,632 shares during the last quarter. Lifestyle Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Lifestyle Asset Management Inc. now owns 10,834 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,051,000 after purchasing an additional 229 shares during the period. Finally, Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. now owns 2,982 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $564,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. 40.03% 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.