Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Trading Up 0.5% – Time to Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) shares were up 0.5% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $186.85 and last traded at $186.37. Approximately 3,598,319 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 80% from the average daily volume of 17,725,828 shares. The stock had previously closed at $185.43.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on GOOG. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Citizens Jmp cut Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays raised their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Pivotal Research raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $209.13.

Alphabet Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $2.29 trillion, a PE ratio of 23.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $194.37 and its 200-day moving average price is $176.65.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.43%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.94%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares in the company, valued at $3,606,723.84. This represents a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total value of $3,975,075.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,061,806 shares in the company, valued at $364,259,266.02. This trade represents a 1.08 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 89,529 shares of company stock worth $16,600,078. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $5,166,070,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $1,551,533,000. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,098,042 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,873,751,000 after purchasing an additional 7,917,625 shares during the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 181,679.1% during the 4th quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 7,225,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,376,066,000 after purchasing an additional 7,221,746 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 6.7% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 91,236,069 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $17,376,706,000 after purchasing an additional 5,758,244 shares in the last quarter. 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.