Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Up 1.2% – Still a Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shot up 1.2% during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $152.85 and last traded at $147.34. 27,160,512 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 2% from the average session volume of 27,611,702 shares. The stock had previously closed at $145.60.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. DA Davidson raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Robert W. Baird reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $205.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Bank of America restated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Citizens Jmp cut Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $209.13.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.8 %

The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $174.25 and its 200 day simple moving average is $176.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.79 trillion, a P/E ratio of 18.23, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. As a group, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.55%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total transaction of $550,702.88. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,847 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,468,029.04. This represents a 13.70 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.80, for a total value of $284,700.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 21,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,142,195.20. This represents a 6.43 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 119,797 shares of company stock worth $21,089,470 over the last ninety days. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $24,383,677,000. FMR LLC increased its holdings 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 valued at $47,025,322,000 after purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 16,993.2% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,483,898,000 after purchasing an additional 15,968,487 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 17.0% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,178,470,000 after purchasing an additional 10,135,430 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors grew its position in 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 valued at $13,635,878,000 after buying an additional 10,037,685 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% 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.