Stock Traders Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Investors bought 525,730 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 26% compared to the average volume of 418,285 call options.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total value of $3,448,820.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 243,400 shares of the company's stock, valued at $45,213,984. The trade was a 7.09% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.38, for a total value of $5,992,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,527,392 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $466,000,536.96. This represents a 1.27% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 249,409 shares of company stock worth $43,523,710. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $78,839,544,000 after purchasing an additional 14,307,345 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in Alphabet by 8.3% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $18,672,198,000 after acquiring an additional 7,574,417 shares in 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.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on GOOGL shares. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Alphabet from $208.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday. Wedbush increased their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday. Citigroup increased their price target on Alphabet from $203.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on Alphabet from $192.00 to $202.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $211.32.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL traded up $1.01 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $193.18. The company had a trading volume of 39,738,342 shares, compared to its average volume of 41,427,228. The company has a market capitalization of $2.34 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $207.05. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $175.77 and its 200-day moving average price is $172.93.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.89 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be given a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is currently 8.95%.

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.