Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report)'s stock price was up 1.4% on Friday . The stock traded as high as $170.65 and last traded at $167.71. Approximately 14,704,404 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 25% from the average daily volume of 19,632,814 shares. The stock had previously closed at $165.40.
Analyst Ratings Changes
Several analysts have recently weighed in on GOOG shares. Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Citigroup reaffirmed a "sell" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $171.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $203.94.
Check Out Our Latest Report on Alphabet
Alphabet Stock Up 1.6%
The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. The firm's 50-day moving average is $160.16 and its 200 day moving average is $176.77. The stock has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The firm had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.89 earnings per share. Alphabet's revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Alphabet Increases Dividend
The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.50%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is 9.36%.
Insider Buying and Selling
In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 2,824 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $187.43, for a total value of $529,302.32. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,024 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,815,948.32. This represents a 15.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.90, for a total transaction of $5,066,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,652,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at $413,555,306.40. The trade was a 1.21% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 179,324 shares of company stock valued at $30,153,353. Insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.
Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet
Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 2.4% during 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 purchasing an additional 9,687,855 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 117,991,725 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $22,470,344,000 after purchasing an additional 3,189,592 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 104,777,092 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $19,894,651,000 after purchasing an additional 1,219,606 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 9.9% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $15,971,861,000 after purchasing an additional 9,243,959 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors grew its holdings in Alphabet by 6.7% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 91,236,069 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $17,376,706,000 after purchasing an additional 5,758,244 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company's stock.
Alphabet Company Profile
(
Get Free Report)
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.
Further Reading
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