Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Trading Up 0.4% - Should You Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report)'s share price shot up 0.4% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $187.10 and last traded at $186.60. 3,404,835 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 81% from the average session volume of 17,465,178 shares. The stock had previously closed at $185.80.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOG has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Scotiabank boosted their target price on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Phillip Securities upgraded Alphabet to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $209.13.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.3 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. The business's 50-day moving average is $194.22 and its two-hundred day moving average is $177.08. The firm has a market cap of $2.22 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.65, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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, analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. This trade represents a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 1,367 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total value of $232,950.47. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 23,515 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,007,191.15. The trade was a 5.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 116,609 shares of company stock valued at $21,809,990. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 117,991,725 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $22,470,344,000 after buying an additional 3,189,592 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 104,777,092 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $19,894,651,000 after acquiring an additional 1,219,606 shares during the period. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 6.7% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 91,236,069 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $17,376,706,000 after acquiring an additional 5,758,244 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,098,042 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $10,873,751,000 after purchasing an additional 7,917,625 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 39,148,500 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $7,455,571,000 after purchasing an additional 294,556 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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.