Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) traded down 1.2% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $226.76 and last traded at $228.29. 11,482,757 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 52% from the average session volume of 23,903,480 shares. The stock had previously closed at $231.10.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on GOOG shares. Scotiabank lifted their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an "equal weight" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Barclays reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $270.00 target price (up from $235.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell 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 price target of $227.56.
Get Our Latest Report on Alphabet
Alphabet Trading Up 0.7%
The company has a 50 day moving average of $194.34 and a two-hundred day moving average of $176.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.81 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.01.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.19. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%.The firm had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.67 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.89 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.
Alphabet Dividend Announcement
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet's payout ratio is presently 8.95%.
Insider Transactions at Alphabet
In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $203.79, for a total transaction of $122,274.00. Following the sale, the director owned 6,316 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,287,137.64. The trade was a 8.68% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.70, for a total value of $4,637,754.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 42,999 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,371,905.30. The trade was a 35.65% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 222,210 shares of company stock worth $41,742,155 in the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.
Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet
Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 580,897.4% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 135,087,705 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $23,963,208,000 after buying an additional 135,064,454 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at about $4,298,572,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at about $2,622,943,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 18,562.3% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,323,323 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,237,733,000 after buying an additional 14,246,573 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $64,299,725,000 after buying an additional 9,687,855 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company's stock.
About Alphabet
(
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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.
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