Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Up 0.3% – Time to Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s stock price shot up 0.3% on Friday . The stock traded as high as $190.81 and last traded at $190.34. 9,301,441 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 53% from the average session volume of 19,748,387 shares. The stock had previously closed at $189.70.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on GOOG. UBS Group lifted their target price on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Pivotal Research lifted their price target on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $200.56.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.7 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $176.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $172.84. The company has a market capitalization of $2.36 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.59, a P/E/G ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.02.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.55 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th were given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,802 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.47, for a total transaction of $2,780,226.94. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 43,999 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,280,514.53. The trade was a 27.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.00, for a total value of $115,500.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 27,824 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,590,960. This represents a 2.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 178,957 shares of company stock valued at $31,358,687 in the last three months. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. IMS Capital Management grew its position in Alphabet by 0.4% in the third quarter. IMS Capital Management now owns 33,879 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,664,000 after acquiring an additional 134 shares during the period. 1ST Source Bank grew its position in Alphabet by 2.3% in the third quarter. 1ST Source Bank now owns 55,309 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $9,247,000 after acquiring an additional 1,245 shares during the period. DGS Capital Management LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 2.0% in the third quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 26,962 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,508,000 after acquiring an additional 531 shares during the period. Copley Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet in the third quarter valued at $962,000. Finally, Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new stake in Alphabet in the third quarter valued at $9,181,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.