Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading Up 1.5% - Time to Buy?

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) rose 1.5% on Friday . The stock traded as high as $165.58 and last traded at $165.10. Approximately 5,382,241 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 80% from the average daily volume of 26,772,840 shares. The stock had previously closed at $162.72.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on GOOGL shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $208.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. TD Securities raised their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Argus increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Bank of America upped their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $206.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Pivotal Research raised Alphabet to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Eight 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 has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $201.76.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.6 %

The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $161.90 and its 200-day moving average price is $168.36. The company has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.35, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. The firm had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $70.60 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.44 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.64 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total transaction of $5,570,188.20. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 312,210 shares of the company's stock, valued at $50,765,346. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.00, for a total transaction of $114,576.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 31,334 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,264,112. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total transaction of $5,570,188.20. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 312,210 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $50,765,346. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 220,426 shares of company stock worth $35,993,340. Insiders own 11.55% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 75.0% during the 2nd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 140 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Tributary Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the first quarter valued at about $30,000. Kings Path Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the second quarter worth about $36,000. Denver PWM LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet in the second quarter worth about $41,000. Finally, CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 59.2% in the first quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. now owns 293 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 109 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.