Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Up 1.1%

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) shot up 1.1% on Friday . The stock traded as high as $177.18 and last traded at $177.01. 3,474,238 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 84% from the average session volume of 21,836,627 shares. The stock had previously closed at $175.06.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on GOOG shares. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. 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. Finally, Susquehanna raised their price objective on Alphabet from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $165.67.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $2.19 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $161.59 and a 200-day simple moving average of $147.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.15 and a quick ratio of 2.15.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.51 by $0.38. Alphabet had a return on equity of 29.52% and a net margin of 25.90%. The company had revenue of $80.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $78.75 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.17 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.7 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a — dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 10th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 10th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 2,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.76, for a total transaction of $369,096.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,891 shares in the company, valued at $1,035,402.16. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.70, for a total value of $2,985,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,332,691 shares in the company, valued at approximately $309,548,095.70. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 2,100 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.76, for a total value of $369,096.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 5,891 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,035,402.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 205,935 shares of company stock worth $31,178,987 over the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 120,234,117 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,852,868,000 after acquiring an additional 4,348,188 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 11.3% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 95,941,129 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,649,838,000 after acquiring an additional 9,703,425 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.3% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,716,562 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,355,724,000 after acquiring an additional 7,470,042 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,269,184 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,550,942,000 after acquiring an additional 1,275,060 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 45,731,826 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,963,128,000 after acquiring an additional 979,083 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.