Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Up 0.3%

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s stock price traded up 0.3% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $159.19 and last traded at $158.77. 3,750,508 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 81% from the average session volume of 20,103,686 shares. The stock had previously closed at $158.37.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on GOOG shares. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. DA Davidson upgraded Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Rosenblatt Securities lowered shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price 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, Wolfe Research raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $182.86.

Alphabet Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a current ratio of 2.08. The firm has a market cap of $1.99 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.04. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $167.82 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $166.64.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $84.22 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.44 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.50%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 12.27%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total transaction of $125,126.54. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 30,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,623,355.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Alphabet news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 $50,765,346. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total transaction of $125,126.54. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 30,650 shares in the company, valued at $5,623,355.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 202,667 shares of company stock worth $34,341,581. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Summit Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 9.6% during the 2nd quarter. Summit Wealth Partners LLC now owns 2,290 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $420,000 after buying an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 29.5% during the second quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 18,814 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,451,000 after purchasing an additional 4,285 shares in the last quarter. SS&H Financial Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Alphabet by 5.4% in the 2nd quarter. SS&H Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 23,470 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,304,000 after purchasing an additional 1,200 shares during the last quarter. Cannon Financial Strategists Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at $268,000. Finally, Brightwater Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth $444,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.