Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Reaches New 1-Year High – Time to Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shares reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $193.70 and last traded at $193.23, with a volume of 19221049 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $185.17.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Roth Mkm lifted their target price on Alphabet from $206.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. JMP Securities upped their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Loop Capital raised their price objective on Alphabet from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have given a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $206.08.

Alphabet Stock Performance

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 firm’s 50-day moving average price is $171.18 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $170.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.35 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.55 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders 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 yield of 0.42%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.61%.

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 Wednesday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.63, for a total value of $3,614,175.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,114,885 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $339,713,977.55. This represents a 1.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total transaction of $6,870,532.68. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $52,329,576.64. The trade was a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 197,123 shares of company stock valued at $34,121,676. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Lantz Financial LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 10.8% in the second quarter. Lantz Financial LLC now owns 4,622 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $842,000 after acquiring an additional 452 shares during the last quarter. Inspirion Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 8.6% in the second quarter. Inspirion Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,813 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $330,000 after acquiring an additional 143 shares during the last quarter. Keystone Wealth Services LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 1.5% in the second quarter. Keystone Wealth Services LLC now owns 6,947 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,265,000 after acquiring an additional 102 shares during the last quarter. MJP Associates Inc. ADV lifted its stake in Alphabet by 9.9% in the second quarter. MJP Associates Inc. ADV now owns 24,681 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,496,000 after acquiring an additional 2,216 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Planning Group LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 21.2% in the second quarter. Retirement Planning Group LLC now owns 11,981 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,182,000 after purchasing an additional 2,092 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

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.