Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Up 1% - Still a Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) rose 1% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $170.93 and last traded at $169.79. Approximately 9,883,558 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 67% from the average daily volume of 29,978,217 shares. The stock had previously closed at $168.05.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $200.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, DA Davidson cut their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $199.75.

Alphabet Stock Performance

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 stock has a market capitalization of $2.11 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $159.81 and a two-hundred day moving average of $174.38.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last issued 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. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion for 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 period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.89 EPS. Research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total transaction of $104,537.09. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,303 shares in the company, valued at $2,377,014.99. This represents a 4.21% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the 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 transaction, the director now owns 7,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. The trade was a 2.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 195,770 shares of company stock worth $32,036,638 over the last three months. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 2.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $78,839,544,000 after buying an additional 14,307,345 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised 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 acquiring an additional 22,100,902 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 8.3% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $18,672,198,000 after acquiring an additional 7,574,417 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised 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 acquiring an additional 10,037,685 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.