Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock Price Up 0.3% - What's Next?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) rose 0.3% on Friday . The stock traded as high as $190.81 and last traded at $190.34. Approximately 9,301,441 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 53% from the average daily volume of 19,748,387 shares. The stock had previously closed at $189.70.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on GOOG. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Pivotal Research upped their price target on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seaport Res Ptn raised Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Phillip Securities upgraded Alphabet to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Scotiabank initiated coverage on Alphabet in a research report on Friday, October 11th. They issued a "sector outperform" rating and a $212.00 price target for the company. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $200.56.

Alphabet Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $2.36 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.59, a P/E/G ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $175.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $172.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.55 earnings per share. Alphabet's revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is presently 10.61%.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 2,834 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $197.55, for a total value of $559,856.70. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,681 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,085,531.55. This represents a 12.05 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.07, for a total transaction of $3,759,075.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,129,306 shares in the company, valued at $355,743,153.42. This represents a 1.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 178,957 shares of company stock worth $31,358,687. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 114,802,133 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $19,193,768,000 after buying an additional 5,655,022 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 103,557,486 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $17,247,208,000 after purchasing an additional 259,213 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 10.3% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 33,334,082 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $5,573,125,000 after purchasing an additional 3,113,395 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 9.1% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 15,424,324 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,578,793,000 after buying an additional 1,291,274 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Alphabet by 4.5% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 14,657,421 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,688,743,000 after buying an additional 636,008 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% 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.