Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock Price Up 2.3% After Better-Than-Expected Earnings

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report)'s share price shot up 2.3% during trading on Friday following a better than expected earnings announcement. The stock traded as high as $168.24 and last traded at $165.18. 14,688,848 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 24% from the average session volume of 19,449,617 shares. The stock had previously closed at $161.47.

The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.04 by $0.77. The firm had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.94%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GOOG. Scotiabank dropped their price target on Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 21st. KeyCorp cut their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Benchmark reiterated a "negative" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $203.94.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.90, for a total transaction of $32,380.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 7,613 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,232,544.70. This trade represents a 2.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This trade represents a 1.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 148,163 shares of company stock worth $25,361,647 over the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $5,166,070,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 18,562.3% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,323,323 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,237,733,000 after purchasing an additional 14,246,573 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,551,533,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Alphabet by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,098,042 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $10,873,751,000 after acquiring an additional 7,917,625 shares during the period. Finally, GQG Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 181,679.1% during the 4th quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 7,225,721 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,376,066,000 after acquiring an additional 7,221,746 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $2.00 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $164.25 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $177.25.

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.