Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Trading 0.9% Higher – Still a Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s stock price traded up 0.9% on Friday . The company traded as high as $158.83 and last traded at $156.76. 6,603,243 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 66% from the average session volume of 19,345,160 shares. The stock had previously closed at $155.37.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOG has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Citizens Jmp lowered Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $206.28.

Alphabet Trading Up 2.5 %

The company’s 50 day moving average price is $171.46 and its 200 day moving average price is $177.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. The firm has a market cap of $1.94 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data 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%. As a group, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares in the company, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Ruth Porat sold 17,690 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.48, for a total transaction of $3,245,761.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 1,449,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $265,914,995.28. This represents a 1.21 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 119,797 shares of company stock valued at $21,089,470 over the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in Alphabet by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,024,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,843,149,000 after purchasing an additional 264,962 shares during the period. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in Alphabet during the third quarter valued at $166,000. McIlrath & Eck LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 12.9% in the 3rd quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 13,575 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,270,000 after buying an additional 1,546 shares in the last quarter. Passumpsic Savings Bank acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the third quarter valued at $263,000. Finally, Advisory Resource Group lifted its stake in Alphabet by 8.7% in the third quarter. Advisory Resource Group now owns 10,277 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,718,000 after acquiring an additional 822 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

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.