Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Up 0.9%

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) shares shot up 0.9% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $167.75 and last traded at $167.05. 4,269,179 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 81% from the average session volume of 22,687,377 shares. The stock had previously closed at $165.57.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on GOOG shares. Susquehanna raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Raymond James raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $165.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $165.67.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.3 %

The company has a quick ratio of 2.10, a current ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The firm has a market cap of $2.09 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.02. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $150.52 and its 200 day moving average is $143.31.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.51 by $0.38. The business had revenue of $80.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $78.75 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 25.90% and a return on equity of 29.52%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.17 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.66 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a — dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 10th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.29, for a total transaction of $3,291,525.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,377,691 shares in the company, valued at $347,832,416.39. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total value of $508,150.26. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 144,685 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,566,519.45. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.29, for a total transaction of $3,291,525.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,377,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $347,832,416.39. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 275,129 shares of company stock worth $40,382,765. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $4,101,040,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 11.3% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 95,941,129 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,649,838,000 after buying an additional 9,703,425 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $11,600,970,000. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 120,234,117 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $15,852,868,000 after buying an additional 4,348,188 shares during the period. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 198.7% during the 4th quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 3,882,882 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $547,215,000 after buying an additional 2,583,128 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.