Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Up 5.6% - Still a Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) shares were up 5.6% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $171.94 and last traded at $173.08. Approximately 27,328,058 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 6% from the average daily volume of 29,198,534 shares. The stock had previously closed at $163.98.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. DZ Bank lowered Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $198.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $189.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday. JMP Securities reiterated a "market perform" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $200.00 target price (down previously from $230.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $199.75.

Alphabet Trading Up 4.4%

The business's 50 day moving average price is $158.23 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $174.93. 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 company has a market capitalization of $2.08 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.49%. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.36%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.90, for a total transaction of $5,066,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,652,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $413,555,306.40. The trade was a 1.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Ruth Porat sold 17,690 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.48, for a total transaction of $3,245,761.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 1,449,286 shares in the company, valued at approximately $265,914,995.28. This represents a 1.21% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 129,744 shares of company stock worth $20,968,366 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth $24,383,677,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the first quarter valued at about $4,317,606,000. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% in 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 during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 16,993.2% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,483,898,000 after purchasing an additional 15,968,487 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $78,839,544,000 after purchasing an additional 14,307,345 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.