Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Up 2% - Should You Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) shares shot up 2% on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $150.24 and last traded at $150.66. 5,981,316 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 79% from the average session volume of 28,218,836 shares. The stock had previously closed at $147.67.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOGL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. DA Davidson lowered their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 17th. DZ Bank downgraded Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $198.00 target price for the company. in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Citizens Jmp lowered shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Susquehanna cut their target price on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a "positive" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $199.03.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.7 %

The company has a 50-day moving average of $162.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $175.43. 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 capitalization of $1.97 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.12, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03.

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. The company 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 previous year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.52%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is 9.94%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 1,340 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. This represents a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at $430,917,877.76. The trade was a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 148,163 shares of company stock worth $25,361,647. 11.55% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $24,383,677,000. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $47,025,322,000 after purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 16,993.2% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,483,898,000 after purchasing an additional 15,968,487 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $13,178,470,000 after purchasing an additional 10,135,430 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in Alphabet by 16.2% during 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 buying an additional 10,037,685 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Company Profile

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.