Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading Up 0.2% – What’s Next?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s stock price rose 0.2% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $164.89 and last traded at $164.19. Approximately 6,021,487 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 77% from the average daily volume of 25,746,461 shares. The stock had previously closed at $163.89.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Alphabet from $187.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $225.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Roth Mkm restated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday. Wolfe Research raised their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Robert W. Baird restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $205.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $210.59.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.0 %

The firm has a market cap of $1.98 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $183.75 and a 200-day moving average of $176.47.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.94%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total value of $33,106.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 7,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. The trade was a 2.50 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total value of $3,239,868.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 43,981 shares in the company, valued at $8,471,620.22. This represents a 27.66 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 93,048 shares of company stock worth $17,374,274. 11.55% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Schear Investment Advisers LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% during the third quarter. Schear Investment Advisers LLC now owns 33,751 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,598,000 after purchasing an additional 4,905 shares during the period. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 27.9% during the third quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. now owns 25,275 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,192,000 after purchasing an additional 5,516 shares during the period. Glass Wealth Management Co LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. Glass Wealth Management Co LLC now owns 37,054 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,014,000 after purchasing an additional 1,580 shares during the period. Olistico Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.1% during the fourth quarter. Olistico Wealth LLC now owns 8,981 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,700,000 after purchasing an additional 746 shares during the period. Finally, Centaurus Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 22.9% during the third quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 61,540 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,206,000 after purchasing an additional 11,481 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

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.