Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Up 1%

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shares traded up 1% during trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $166.18 and last traded at $165.38. 3,519,543 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 87% from the average session volume of 27,899,875 shares. The stock had previously closed at $163.80.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Roth Mkm lifted their price target on Alphabet from $202.00 to $206.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $165.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 11th. TD Securities upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $203.74.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.9 %

The company has a quick ratio of 2.08, a current ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.05. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $174.96 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $162.89.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. The business had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $70.60 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.44 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 12.27%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.86, for a total value of $118,572.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,966 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,209,888.76. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.86, for a total transaction of $118,572.52. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,209,888.76. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.35, for a total transaction of $3,652,875.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,182,385 shares in the company, valued at $354,310,204.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 156,565 shares of company stock valued at $26,823,893. 11.55% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc increased its position in Alphabet by 75.0% during the second quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 140 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Tributary Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at about $30,000. Kings Path Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $38,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.