Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Up 1.6% – Should You Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) was up 1.6% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $328.67 and last traded at $323.64. Approximately 50,029,958 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 110% from the average daily volume of 23,870,371 shares. The stock had previously closed at $318.47.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on GOOG shares. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $280.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Scotiabank set a $336.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $340.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have given a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $304.62.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.6%

The stock has a market cap of $3.91 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.92, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $264.32 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $215.82.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The information services provider reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. The business had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 36.08%. Alphabet’s revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.12 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.28%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total value of $4,408,034.72. Following the transaction, the insider owned 42,985 shares in the company, valued at $10,635,348.70. This trade represents a 29.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.15, for a total value of $8,129,875.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,369,619 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $592,760,192.85. The trade was a 1.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 227,952 shares of company stock valued at $58,896,009 over the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 416,753,033 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $73,927,821,000 after purchasing an additional 5,182,111 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.3% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 188,914,125 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $33,511,477,000 after buying an additional 2,428,266 shares during the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 580,897.4% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 135,087,705 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $23,963,208,000 after buying an additional 135,064,454 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 107,760,033 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,022,926,000 after buying an additional 441,177 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.9% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $15,971,861,000 after acquiring an additional 9,243,959 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.