Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Trading 1% Higher

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s stock price traded up 1% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $175.91 and last traded at $173.62. 3,185,338 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 84% from the average session volume of 20,445,275 shares. The stock had previously closed at $171.86.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $165.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Rosenblatt Securities downgraded Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Friday, June 28th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Wolfe Research raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $182.86.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.8 %

The company has a market capitalization of $2.14 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 2.08. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $180.27 and a 200-day moving average price of $162.43.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. The company had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.22 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.44 earnings per share. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 9th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.46%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 12.27%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $182.84, for a total value of $4,113,900.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,204,885 shares in the company, valued at $403,141,173.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.67, for a total value of $113,668.94. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,880,764.28. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $182.84, for a total value of $4,113,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,204,885 shares in the company, valued at approximately $403,141,173.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 122,308 shares of company stock worth $21,932,868 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Partnership Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Equitec Proprietary Markets LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the second quarter worth about $37,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Richardson Financial Services Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. 27.26% of the stock is 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.