Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading 0% Higher – Time to Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s stock price traded up 0% on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $201.42 and last traded at $196.70. 14,821,278 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 46% from the average session volume of 27,405,076 shares. The stock had previously closed at $196.66.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on GOOGL. China Renaissance raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Bank of America lifted their target price on Alphabet from $206.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $190.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $210.00 price objective (up previously from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have issued a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $206.08.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $2.40 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.01. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $172.31 and a two-hundred day moving average of $170.80. 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:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.85 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.55 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 10.61%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.22, for a total transaction of $291,330.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 23,324 shares in the company, valued at $4,529,987.28. This trade represents a 6.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total value of $75,437.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 16,490 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,820,779.40. This trade represents a 2.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 198,623 shares of company stock valued at $34,413,006 in the last 90 days. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 43,005.6% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 18,743,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $31,086,250,000 after buying an additional 18,700,111 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 587.4% during the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 10,690,326 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,772,991,000 after purchasing an additional 9,135,056 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 116.4% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 8,670,225 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,437,957,000 after purchasing an additional 4,662,809 shares during the period. Wulff Hansen & CO. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 18,810.2% during the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,434,260 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $807,700,000 after purchasing an additional 4,410,811 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 91.0% in the second quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 7,928,470 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,450,599,000 after purchasing an additional 3,777,527 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by 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.