Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock Price Up 0.8%

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s stock price traded up 0.8% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $166.54 and last traded at $165.22. 3,367,758 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 84% from the average session volume of 20,445,383 shares. The stock had previously closed at $163.95.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Wolfe Research upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Rosenblatt Securities downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $182.86.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $178.39 and its 200-day moving average price is $163.59. The firm has a market cap of $2.05 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.34, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. The company had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $84.22 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.44 earnings per share. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared 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. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 12.27%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.86, for a total value of $118,572.52. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,209,888.76. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.86, for a total transaction of $118,572.52. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,209,888.76. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total value of $600,175.38. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 9 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,655.91. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 144,108 shares of company stock worth $25,464,954. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $8,232,000. Alpha Financial Partners LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Alpha Financial Partners LLC now owns 2,955 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $416,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares during the period. Meitav Investment House Ltd. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Meitav Investment House Ltd. now owns 403,629 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $56,916,000 after purchasing an additional 15,694 shares in the last quarter. Costello Asset Management INC increased its position in Alphabet by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Costello Asset Management INC now owns 28,554 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,024,000 after purchasing an additional 178 shares during the period. Finally, Friedenthal Financial purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $124,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.