Alphabet Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) saw unusually large options trading on Thursday. Traders acquired 294,781 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 33% compared to the average daily volume of 220,943 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.38, for a total transaction of $5,992,350.00. Following 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 400 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, July 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.98, for a total value of $72,792.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 6,013 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,094,245.74. The trade was a 6.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 249,409 shares of company stock worth $43,523,710 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 5.6% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 120,253 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $22,901,000 after purchasing an additional 6,410 shares in the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG grew its holdings in Alphabet by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 506,535 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $96,465,000 after purchasing an additional 20,855 shares in the last quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 34.2% during the 4th quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 11,811 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,249,000 after purchasing an additional 3,008 shares in the last quarter. Murphy & Mullick Capital Management Corp acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $151,000. Finally, Summitry LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 7.8% during the 4th quarter. Summitry LLC now owns 14,523 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,766,000 after purchasing an additional 1,047 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOG has been the topic of several analyst reports. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $210.00 price target (up from $185.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday. Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Westpark Capital reissued a "buy" rating and set a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Cowen reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $215.19.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG traded up $0.88 on Friday, reaching $194.08. The company's stock had a trading volume of 31,074,800 shares, compared to its average volume of 27,020,362. Alphabet has a 52-week low of $142.66 and a 52-week high of $208.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.77. The stock's 50-day moving average is $176.86 and its two-hundred day moving average is $174.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.36 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.67, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.19. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. The company had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.67 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.89 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. Alphabet's 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.