Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Alphabet Call Options (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock investors bought 179,061 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 43% compared to the average volume of 125,111 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on GOOG shares. Scotiabank started coverage on Alphabet in a report on Friday, October 11th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 price objective on the stock. DA Davidson raised Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $200.56.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.84, for a total transaction of $230,804.28. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,183 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,927,257.72. The trade was a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.63, for a total value of $3,614,175.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,114,885 shares in the company, valued at approximately $339,713,977.55. The trade was a 1.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 197,123 shares of company stock worth $34,121,676. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5.2% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 114,802,133 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,193,768,000 after buying an additional 5,655,022 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 103,557,486 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $17,247,208,000 after buying an additional 259,213 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 10.3% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 33,334,082 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,573,125,000 after buying an additional 3,113,395 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.1% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 15,424,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,578,793,000 after buying an additional 1,291,274 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 14,657,421 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,688,743,000 after buying an additional 636,008 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 5.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $196.71 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $2.41 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.73, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.02. 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 business has a 50 day simple moving average of $171.62 and a 200 day simple moving average of $171.80. Alphabet has a 52 week low of $131.06 and a 52 week high of $196.89.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The company’s revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.55 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Alphabet will post 8.02 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, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.41%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

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.