Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Up 0.4% – Should You Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shares rose 0.4% during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $168.34 and last traded at $167.62. Approximately 12,919,093 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 55% from the average daily volume of 28,820,365 shares. The stock had previously closed at $167.01.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Bank of America reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. DA Davidson lifted their price target on Alphabet from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Loop Capital lifted their price target on Alphabet from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, DZ Bank lowered Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $198.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. 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 company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $210.62.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The firm has a fifty day moving average of $190.02 and a 200-day moving average of $176.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.08 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.23, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.94%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,374 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.47, for a total value of $238,347.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,606,213.28. The trade was a 8.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total value of $6,870,532.68. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. This represents a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 134,316 shares of company stock valued at $25,062,887 over the last three months. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. FMR LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 9.8% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $47,025,322,000 after acquiring an additional 22,100,902 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in Alphabet by 0.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 222,555,548 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $36,910,838,000 after acquiring an additional 743,369 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 134,030,679 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $22,154,651,000 after purchasing an additional 2,626,431 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $24,383,677,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 8.3% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $18,672,198,000 after purchasing an additional 7,574,417 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.