Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock Price Up 0.6% – What’s Next?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s stock price rose 0.6% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $201.45 and last traded at $201.21. Approximately 3,228,039 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 79% from the average daily volume of 15,313,084 shares. The stock had previously closed at $200.03.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on GOOG. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $200.56.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.9 %

The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $186.95 and a 200-day moving average price of $175.06. The company has a market capitalization of $2.43 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.55 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.03 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.40%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 10.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.78, for a total transaction of $1,898,190.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 330,466 shares in the company, valued at approximately $59,741,643.48. The trade was a 3.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.42, for a total value of $234,331.14. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 26,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,516,745.58. The trade was a 4.93 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 133,387 shares of company stock worth $24,368,654 over the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Harrell Investment Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Harrell Investment Partners LLC now owns 5,659 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,078,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Redhawk Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Redhawk Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 5,073 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $966,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares during the period. Investment Advisory Group LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Investment Advisory Group LLC now owns 7,684 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,463,000 after buying an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,275 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $243,000 after buying an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sunburst Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Sunburst Financial Group LLC now owns 2,959 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $495,000 after buying an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. 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.