Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock Price Up 0.8% – Here’s What Happened

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) were up 0.8% during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $185.09 and last traded at $182.96. Approximately 5,542,050 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 68% from the average daily volume of 17,303,842 shares. The stock had previously closed at $181.58.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOG has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup boosted their target price on Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Phillip Securities upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $209.13.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.5 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $2.22 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.00. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $194.02 and its 200-day moving average price is $177.45. 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) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. Equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total value of $6,870,532.68. Following the sale, the director now owns 282,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $52,329,576.64. This represents a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total transaction of $232,950.47. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 23,515 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,007,191.15. This trade represents a 5.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 134,299 shares of company stock valued at $25,055,751. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Swedbank AB lifted its position in Alphabet by 0.6% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 8,338,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,394,181,000 after buying an additional 51,226 shares during the period. Moody Lynn & Lieberson LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 4.5% during the third quarter. Moody Lynn & Lieberson LLC now owns 54,102 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,045,000 after purchasing an additional 2,328 shares during the last quarter. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.6% during the 3rd quarter. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated now owns 10,730 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,771,000 after buying an additional 944 shares during the period. Busey Bank raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Busey Bank now owns 579,189 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $96,835,000 after buying an additional 5,041 shares during the period. Finally, Heritage Oak Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the third quarter valued at about $1,375,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Company Profile

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.