Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock traders bought 282,483 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 50% compared to the average volume of 188,673 call options.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Westpark Capital reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Tigress Financial reissued a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Morgan Stanley reissued an "overweight" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC downgraded shares of Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "cautious" rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $203.94.
View Our Latest Stock Report on GOOG
Alphabet Stock Performance
Shares of Alphabet stock traded up $2.60 during trading on Friday, hitting $168.00. 12,818,432 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 19,624,839. Alphabet has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $208.70. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $160.16 and a 200-day simple moving average of $176.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.04 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.87, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The company had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.89 earnings per share. Alphabet's revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.
Alphabet Increases Dividend
The business 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.50%. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.36%.
Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet
In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 2,824 shares of the 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares in the company, valued at $2,815,948.32. This trade represents a 15.82% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.90, for a total value of $5,066,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,652,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at $413,555,306.40. This trade represents a 1.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 179,324 shares of company stock worth $30,153,353 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.
Institutional Inflows and Outflows
A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $64,299,725,000 after buying an additional 9,687,855 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 117,991,725 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $22,470,344,000 after acquiring an additional 3,189,592 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 104,777,092 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $19,894,651,000 after purchasing an additional 1,219,606 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in Alphabet by 9.9% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $15,971,861,000 after purchasing an additional 9,243,959 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 6.7% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 91,236,069 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $17,376,706,000 after purchasing an additional 5,758,244 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
About Alphabet
(
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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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