Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Trading 0.1% Higher – Still a Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) shares rose 0.1% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $163.84 and last traded at $163.22. Approximately 3,439,586 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 83% from the average daily volume of 19,788,443 shares. The stock had previously closed at $163.06.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on GOOG. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Alphabet from $204.00 to $187.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. DA Davidson upgraded Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Oppenheimer lowered their price objective on Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Pivotal Research began coverage on Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $215.00 target price for the company. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $184.11.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.5 %

The business has a fifty day moving average price of $163.07 and a 200 day moving average price of $169.07. The company has a market capitalization of $2.02 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 2.08.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 9th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.49%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 12.27%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.00, for a total value of $114,576.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 31,334 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,264,112. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.00, for a total value of $114,576.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 31,334 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,264,112. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 700 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.00, for a total value of $115,500.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 29,324 shares in the company, valued at $4,838,460. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 217,592 shares of company stock valued at $35,922,911. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 19.7% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 84,171,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,815,986,000 after buying an additional 13,876,534 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 1st quarter valued at $1,378,708,000. Capital International Investors raised its position in Alphabet by 9.3% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,716,562 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,355,724,000 after purchasing an additional 7,470,042 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in Alphabet by 51.8% in the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 6,416,150 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $976,923,000 after purchasing an additional 2,190,795 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vima LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 178,253.1% in the first quarter. Vima LLC now owns 2,001,122 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $304,691,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000,000 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.