Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock Price Up 1% – Time to Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s stock price shot up 1% during trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $189.99 and last traded at $189.01. 5,196,780 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 71% from the average session volume of 18,001,457 shares. The stock had previously closed at $187.14.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOG has been the subject of several recent research reports. Citizens Jmp downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays lifted their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $209.13.

Alphabet Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $2.27 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.03, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $193.70 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $176.40.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share 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%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.94%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total value of $3,975,075.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,061,806 shares in the company, valued at $364,259,266.02. This represents a 1.08 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares in the company, valued at $3,606,723.84. This trade represents a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 89,529 shares of company stock worth $16,600,078. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Disciplined Investors L.L.C. bought a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $614,000. SevenBridge Financial Group LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. SevenBridge Financial Group LLC now owns 24,903 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,659,000 after purchasing an additional 162 shares during the period. OneAscent Financial Services LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 52.3% during the 4th quarter. OneAscent Financial Services LLC now owns 8,597 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,637,000 after purchasing an additional 2,952 shares during the period. Huntington National Bank raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 239,811 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $45,670,000 after buying an additional 6,506 shares in the last quarter. Finally, RFG Bristol Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $3,651,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.