Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Up 0.1% – Time to Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shares rose 0.1% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $169.48 and last traded at $169.23. Approximately 19,241,543 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 29% from the average daily volume of 27,217,824 shares. The stock had previously closed at $169.12.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $205.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $217.00 to $208.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 14th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $217.00 target price (up from $215.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Scotiabank upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have issued a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $205.90.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $168.22 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $170.34. The firm has a market cap of $2.07 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.44, a PEG ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.85 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.55 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total transaction of $3,975,075.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,061,806 shares in the company, valued at approximately $364,259,266.02. The trade was a 1.08 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.44, for a total value of $109,420.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 32,017 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,136,807.48. This trade represents a 2.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 206,795 shares of company stock valued at $34,673,866 over the last quarter. 11.55% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 70.6% in the first quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 101,230 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $15,279,000 after purchasing an additional 41,880 shares during the period. Quent Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.6% in the 1st quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 31,171 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,705,000 after acquiring an additional 1,072 shares during the period. Napean Trading & Investment Co Singapore PTE Ltd boosted its position in Alphabet by 19.7% during the 1st quarter. Napean Trading & Investment Co Singapore PTE Ltd now owns 135,878 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $20,508,000 after purchasing an additional 22,339 shares during the period. Capital Group Investment Management PTE. LTD. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 8.6% in the 1st quarter. Capital Group Investment Management PTE. LTD. now owns 45,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,942,000 after purchasing an additional 3,639 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Inc. CA raised its position in Alphabet by 3.4% in the first quarter. Capital International Inc. CA now owns 402,953 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $60,818,000 after purchasing an additional 13,425 shares during the period. 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.