Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Up 1% – Time to Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) was up 1% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $181.80 and last traded at $181.66. Approximately 3,274,441 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 83% from the average daily volume of 19,589,656 shares. The stock had previously closed at $179.86.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on GOOG. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Scotiabank started coverage on Alphabet in a research note on Friday, October 11th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 price target for the company. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $200.56.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The company has a market cap of $2.22 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.04. The company’s fifty day moving average is $164.92 and its 200 day moving average is $171.27.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.55 EPS. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The shares were 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. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 312,210 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,765,346. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.41, for a total transaction of $1,862,805.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 319,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $56,765,168.06. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 241,752 shares of company stock worth $40,156,829. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in Alphabet by 360.1% during the first quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 20,249 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,083,000 after purchasing an additional 15,848 shares during the period. Quent Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5.8% in the first quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 32,706 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,980,000 after purchasing an additional 1,798 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 19.0% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 86,040 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,100,000 after buying an additional 13,756 shares during the period. Avalon Trust Co increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.1% during the first quarter. Avalon Trust Co now owns 469,451 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $71,479,000 after buying an additional 9,601 shares during the period. Finally, Forsta AP Fonden raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 7.6% in the first quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 1,368,200 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $208,322,000 after acquiring an additional 97,000 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.