Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report)'s stock price rose 2% during trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $164.41 and last traded at $164.56. Approximately 8,070,138 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 71% from the average daily volume of 28,136,840 shares. The stock had previously closed at $161.30.
Analyst Ratings Changes
Several analysts have recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. 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. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and issued a $178.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $199.46.
View Our Latest Stock Report on Alphabet
Alphabet Stock Performance
The business has a 50-day moving average of $160.19 and a two-hundred day moving average of $175.34. 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 company has a market cap of $2.00 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.38, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion for 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%. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.89 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Alphabet Increases Dividend
The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.51%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is presently 9.36%.
Insider Activity
In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total transaction of $33,106.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,293,285.89. The trade was a 2.50 % 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, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 1,340 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,606,723.84. This trade represents a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 148,164 shares of company stock worth $25,357,390. Insiders own 11.55% of the company's stock.
Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet
Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $24,383,677,000. FMR LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 9.8% in the 4th 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 grew 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 purchasing an additional 15,968,487 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% during 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 purchasing an additional 10,135,430 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 16.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $13,635,878,000 after purchasing an additional 10,037,685 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company's stock.
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.
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