Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock Price Up 0.1% – Still a Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) traded up 0.1% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $171.14 and last traded at $170.82. 12,433,371 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 37% from the average session volume of 19,605,984 shares. The stock had previously closed at $170.62.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Scotiabank initiated coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, October 11th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 target price for the company. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $200.56.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.1 %

The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $169.71 and a 200 day moving average price of $171.85. 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 company has a market capitalization of $2.09 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.66, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.55 EPS. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 10.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.68, for a total transaction of $3,570,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,137,385 shares in the company, valued at $339,160,251.80. This represents a 1.04 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total transaction of $429,587.55. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,421,948.46. The trade was a 8.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 206,795 shares of company stock valued at $34,673,866 over the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Quent Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5.8% during the first quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 32,706 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,980,000 after purchasing an additional 1,798 shares during the last quarter. Beck Bode LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 23.5% during the first quarter. Beck Bode LLC now owns 63,067 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $9,603,000 after buying an additional 12,021 shares during the last quarter. Redwood Grove Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 6.1% in the first quarter. Redwood Grove Capital LLC now owns 102,400 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,591,000 after acquiring an additional 5,900 shares in the last quarter. ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 56.1% in the first quarter. ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,083 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $469,000 after acquiring an additional 1,108 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Farallon Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 6.4% during the first quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 3,337,950 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $508,236,000 after acquiring an additional 199,410 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.