Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading Up 0.4% - Here's What Happened

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) rose 0.4% on Monday . The company traded as high as $165.28 and last traded at $164.75. Approximately 5,553,047 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 80% from the average daily volume of 28,106,236 shares. The stock had previously closed at $164.03.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Westpark Capital raised shares of Alphabet to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $199.46.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.7 %

The company has a market capitalization of $2.00 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. 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's fifty day moving average is $160.19 and its 200-day moving average is $175.50.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.89 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.51%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.36%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This trade represents a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total transaction of $33,106.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 7,813 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,293,285.89. This trade represents a 2.50 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 146,824 shares of company stock worth $25,086,603 in the last quarter. 11.55% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth $24,383,677,000. FMR LLC lifted its stake in 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 during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased 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 valued at $2,483,898,000 after purchasing an additional 15,968,487 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its position in Alphabet by 17.0% during the fourth 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. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings 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 worth $13,635,878,000 after acquiring an additional 10,037,685 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

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.

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