Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Trading 1.2% Higher

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) traded up 1.2% on Thursday . The company traded as high as $155.45 and last traded at $153.94. 4,839,052 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 76% from the average session volume of 20,127,643 shares. The stock had previously closed at $152.15.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Rosenblatt Securities cut shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $182.86.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.9 %

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 company has a fifty day simple moving average of $170.36 and a 200-day simple moving average of $165.90. The stock has a market cap of $1.92 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.61, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $84.74 billion during 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%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.44 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 9th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.52%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 12.27%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.40, for a total transaction of $3,991,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,213,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $392,588,151.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total transaction of $429,587.55. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,182 shares in the company, valued at $4,421,948.46. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.40, for a total value of $3,991,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,213,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $392,588,151.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 201,867 shares of company stock valued at $34,218,581 over the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Gilbert & Cook Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 15.5% in the fourth quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 29,159 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,109,000 after acquiring an additional 3,924 shares during the period. Concentrum Wealth Management grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 25.0% during the fourth quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 16,440 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,317,000 after purchasing an additional 3,283 shares during the last quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC now owns 6,647 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $937,000 after purchasing an additional 154 shares during the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 103.9% during the fourth quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 10,181 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,435,000 after purchasing an additional 5,188 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 26,719 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,766,000 after purchasing an additional 1,143 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.