Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock Price Up 0.9%

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) shares were up 0.9% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $187.50 and last traded at $186.99. Approximately 4,124,538 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 81% from the average daily volume of 21,227,242 shares. The stock had previously closed at $185.37.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on GOOG. Rosenblatt Securities lowered Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Friday. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $165.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $167.86.

Alphabet Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $2.27 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.01. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $174.40 and a 200-day simple moving average of $155.53. The company has a quick ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.38. The company had revenue of $80.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $78.75 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 25.90% and a return on equity of 29.52%. Alphabet’s revenue was up 15.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.17 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a — dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 10th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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 that occurred on Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.79, for a total value of $105,566.78. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,284 shares in the company, valued at $4,532,870.36. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.79, for a total transaction of $105,566.78. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,532,870.36. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.67, for a total value of $3,502,575.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,325,513 shares in the company, valued at approximately $362,012,608.71. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 146,284 shares of company stock worth $24,534,393. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Waverly Advisors LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 11.9% during the 3rd quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC now owns 22,927 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,023,000 after acquiring an additional 2,433 shares in the last quarter. Gateway Advisory LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 11.5% in the third quarter. Gateway Advisory LLC now owns 40,074 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,294,000 after purchasing an additional 4,131 shares in the last quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 51.1% in the third quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 11,972 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,579,000 after purchasing an additional 4,049 shares during the last quarter. Becker Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Alphabet by 1.8% during the third quarter. Becker Capital Management Inc. now owns 39,385 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,193,000 after buying an additional 697 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Truist Financial Corp boosted its stake in Alphabet by 9.7% during the third quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 4,529,983 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $597,278,000 after buying an additional 401,501 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% 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.