Investors Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was the target of unusually large options trading on Friday. Stock investors purchased 392,187 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 23% compared to the typical daily volume of 317,596 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total transaction of $94,769.40. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 27,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,009,032.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 2,100 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.76, for a total transaction of $369,096.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 5,891 shares in the company, valued at $1,035,402.16. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total value of $94,769.40. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 27,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,009,032.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 253,439 shares of company stock valued at $36,746,578 over the last 90 days. 0.88% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Tributary Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at about $30,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. Meritage Group LP boosted its stake in Alphabet by 1,061.5% during the 3rd quarter. Meritage Group LP now owns 302 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 276 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Macroview Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 165.8% during the 3rd quarter. Macroview Investment Management LLC now owns 319 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 199 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $171.95 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.10, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $147.85 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $141.42. Alphabet has a 1-year low of $103.54 and a 1-year high of $174.71. The company has a market cap of $2.14 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.37, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.01% and a net margin of 25.90%. The firm had revenue of $86.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $70.77 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.05 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 6.79 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 12.27%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Alphabet from $165.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on Alphabet from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. JMP Securities increased their price target on Alphabet from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on Alphabet from $168.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $187.82.

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.