Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Up 2.8% - Still a Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report)'s share price traded up 2.8% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $178.13 and last traded at $174.83. 20,283,302 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 2% from the average session volume of 19,935,833 shares. The stock had previously closed at $170.06.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. KeyCorp lowered their target price on Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Rosenblatt Securities raised Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Scotiabank reduced their target price on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 21st. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $171.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "overweight" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $203.94.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $2.06 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $160.47 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $176.56.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The company had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.89 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.50%. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 1,374 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.47, for a total transaction of $238,347.78. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,606,213.28. The trade was a 8.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at $430,917,877.76. This trade represents a 1.18% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 164,654 shares of company stock valued at $26,793,380. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $5,166,070,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 1st quarter valued at about $2,622,943,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 18,562.3% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,323,323 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,237,733,000 after buying an additional 14,246,573 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $64,299,725,000 after buying an additional 9,687,855 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in Alphabet by 9.9% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $15,971,861,000 after acquiring an additional 9,243,959 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.