Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report)'s stock price rose 1.1% during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $176.47 and last traded at $175.45. Approximately 8,919,911 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 70% from the average daily volume of 30,126,538 shares. The stock had previously closed at $173.47.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Wedbush set a $190.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. BMO Capital Markets reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $200.00 price objective (down from $230.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $199.75.
Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on Alphabet
Alphabet Price Performance
The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.14 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $160.14 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $174.38.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.89 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Alphabet Increases Dividend
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is 9.36%.
Insider Activity
In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total transaction of $104,537.09. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,377,014.99. This trade represents a 4.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total value of $33,106.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares in the company, valued at $1,293,285.89. This trade represents a 2.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 195,770 shares of company stock worth $32,036,638 over the last three months. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.
Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet
Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $24,383,677,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 1st quarter worth approximately $4,317,606,000. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $47,025,322,000 after purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 16,993.2% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,483,898,000 after acquiring an additional 15,968,487 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $78,839,544,000 after buying an additional 14,307,345 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.
About Alphabet
(
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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