Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading 1.7% Higher - Still a Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report)'s share price rose 1.7% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $155.00 and last traded at $153.96. Approximately 22,457,650 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 21% from the average daily volume of 28,546,475 shares. The stock had previously closed at $151.38.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $178.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $200.00 price objective (down from $230.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Westpark Capital reissued a "buy" rating and set a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday. Bank of America upped their price target on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, DA Davidson cut their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy 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 $199.75.

Alphabet Price Performance

The company has a fifty day moving average price of $158.93 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $175.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.85 trillion, a PE ratio of 18.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

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 business had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.89 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.55%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,690 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.51, for a total transaction of $3,281,671.90. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 43,111 shares in the company, valued at $7,997,521.61. The trade was a 29.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 2,824 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 15,024 shares in the company, valued at $2,815,948.32. This represents a 15.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 179,324 shares of company stock worth $30,153,353. 11.64% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $24,383,677,000. FMR LLC increased its position 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 valued at $47,025,322,000 after buying an additional 22,100,902 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake 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 buying an additional 15,968,487 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% in the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Alphabet by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $13,178,470,000 after acquiring an additional 10,135,430 shares during the last quarter. 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.