Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Trading Up 3.1% – Time to Buy?

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) traded up 3.1% on Monday . The company traded as high as $294.52 and last traded at $285.60. 34,148,984 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 46% from the average session volume of 23,355,357 shares. The stock had previously closed at $276.98.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOG has been the subject of several recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $340.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Mizuho set a $325.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. DA Davidson set a $825.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Finally, Scotiabank set a $336.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $324.81.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $3.54 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.89, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The company has a 50-day moving average of $259.76 and a 200 day moving average of $211.86.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a return on equity of 36.08% and a net margin of 32.23%.The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.90 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.12 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 8.28%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.05, for a total transaction of $694,638.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 14,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,629,725.80. The trade was a 16.06% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.15, for a total transaction of $8,129,875.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,369,619 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $592,760,192.85. This trade represents a 1.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 189,896 shares of company stock valued at $47,653,637 in the last quarter. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Alphabet by 1.3% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 416,753,033 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $73,927,821,000 after purchasing an additional 5,182,111 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 188,914,125 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $33,511,477,000 after buying an additional 2,428,266 shares during the period. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 580,897.4% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 135,087,705 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $23,963,208,000 after buying an additional 135,064,454 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 107,760,033 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $19,022,926,000 after buying an additional 441,177 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in Alphabet by 9.9% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $15,971,861,000 after buying an additional 9,243,959 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.