Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Trading 1.2% Higher – Time to Buy?

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) were up 1.2% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $154.93 and last traded at $149.55. Approximately 17,115,284 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 10% from the average daily volume of 19,031,002 shares. The stock had previously closed at $147.74.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on GOOG shares. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Scotiabank lifted their price target on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Citizens Jmp lowered shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Benchmark reissued a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $207.33.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $1.96 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.04. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $174.13 and a 200-day moving average of $178.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares in the company, valued at $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.80, for a total transaction of $284,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 21,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,142,195.20. This represents a 6.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 119,797 shares of company stock worth $21,089,470. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $5,166,070,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 18,562.3% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,323,323 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,237,733,000 after buying an additional 14,246,573 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $1,551,533,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,098,042 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,873,751,000 after buying an additional 7,917,625 shares during the period. Finally, GQG Partners LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 181,679.1% in the 4th quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 7,225,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,376,066,000 after acquiring an additional 7,221,746 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.