Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Up 0.2% – Time to Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s stock price was up 0.2% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $164.89 and last traded at $164.19. Approximately 6,021,487 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 77% from the average daily volume of 25,746,461 shares. The stock had previously closed at $163.89.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. KeyCorp reduced their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $202.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. DZ Bank downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $198.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $187.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $210.59.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.0 %

The company has a 50 day moving average of $183.75 and a 200 day moving average of $176.47. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm has a market cap of $1.98 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total transaction of $3,239,868.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 43,981 shares in the company, valued at $8,471,620.22. The trade was a 27.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. The trade was a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 93,048 shares of company stock valued at $17,374,274. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Schear Investment Advisers LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 17.0% in the third quarter. Schear Investment Advisers LLC now owns 33,751 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,598,000 after purchasing an additional 4,905 shares during the last quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 27.9% in the third quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. now owns 25,275 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,192,000 after acquiring an additional 5,516 shares in the last quarter. Glass Wealth Management Co LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. Glass Wealth Management Co LLC now owns 37,054 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,014,000 after acquiring an additional 1,580 shares in the last quarter. Olistico Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.1% in the fourth quarter. Olistico Wealth LLC now owns 8,981 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,700,000 after acquiring an additional 746 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Centaurus Financial Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 22.9% in the third quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 61,540 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,206,000 after acquiring an additional 11,481 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

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.