Alphabet Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) saw unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Investors bought 279,082 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 131% compared to the average daily volume of 120,925 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on GOOG. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Pivotal Research lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. UBS Group upped their price target on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $200.56.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.00, for a total transaction of $114,576.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 31,334 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,264,112. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.66, for a total transaction of $3,772,350.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,159,885 shares in the company, valued at $362,126,319.10. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.00, for a total value of $114,576.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 31,334 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,264,112. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 220,426 shares of company stock valued at $35,993,340 over the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,985 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,465,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. PCG Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 3.1% in the second quarter. PCG Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,880 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $345,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the period. Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV boosted its position in Alphabet by 1.6% in the second quarter. Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV now owns 3,636 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $667,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV now owns 2,944 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $540,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. Finally, Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 11.1% during the 1st quarter. Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC now owns 600 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $91,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 2.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $176.14 on Thursday. Alphabet has a 1 year low of $123.93 and a 1 year high of $193.31. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $163.56 and its 200-day moving average price is $170.30. 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 company has a market cap of $2.18 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.02, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.55 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet will post 7.64 earnings per share for the current year.

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.