Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Trading 3.1% Higher – Time to Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s stock price traded up 3.1% during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $294.52 and last traded at $285.60. 34,148,984 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 46% from the average session volume of 23,355,357 shares. The stock had previously closed at $276.98.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GOOG. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Alphabet from $215.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, September 22nd. HSBC restated a “buy” rating and set a $335.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 7th. Wolfe Research raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $290.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $330.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $324.81.

Alphabet Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $3.45 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.17, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $257.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $210.16.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a return on equity of 36.08% and a net margin of 32.23%.The company had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.12 earnings per share. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 8.28%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.15, for a total value of $8,129,875.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,369,619 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $592,760,192.85. This trade represents a 1.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.00, for a total transaction of $680,610.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 17,293 shares in the company, valued at $4,236,785. This represents a 13.84% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 222,396 shares of company stock worth $54,151,037 over the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. IFS Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 400.0% in the second quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Robbins Farley increased its stake in Alphabet by 60.0% in the 2nd quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 160 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the period. WestEnd Advisors LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 58.7% in the 2nd quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC now owns 165 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Fairman Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 121.3% during the 2nd quarter. Fairman Group LLC now owns 177 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 97 shares during the period. Finally, University of Illinois Foundation purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

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.