Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Trading 0.3% Higher

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s share price was up 0.3% on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $170.41 and last traded at $168.92. Approximately 3,983,051 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 80% from the average daily volume of 20,332,684 shares. The stock had previously closed at $168.40.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOG has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Rosenblatt Securities cut Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. One equities research 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 company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $182.86.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.3 %

The company’s 50 day moving average price is $177.21 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $164.14. The firm has a market cap of $2.09 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.03, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th will be given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 12.27%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 700 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.00, for a total value of $115,500.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 29,324 shares in the company, valued at $4,838,460. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Alphabet news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total transaction of $5,570,188.20. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 312,210 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,765,346. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.00, for a total value of $115,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 29,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,838,460. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 156,565 shares of company stock worth $27,253,193. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. HWG Holdings LP acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth about $40,000. Chase Investment Counsel Corp acquired a new position in Alphabet during the second quarter worth $227,000. EP Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 6.4% in the second quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 209,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $38,395,000 after acquiring an additional 12,637 shares in the last quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 17.7% in the second quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP now owns 470,768 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $86,443,000 after acquiring an additional 70,932 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kimelman & Baird LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter valued at $6,852,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% 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.