Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Trading Up 0.6%

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s stock price rose 0.6% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $157.92 and last traded at $157.80. Approximately 3,994,063 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 82% from the average daily volume of 22,088,027 shares. The stock had previously closed at $156.88.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $159.86.

Alphabet Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $1.94 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a quick ratio of 2.10, a current ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $147.46 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $141.87.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $86.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $85.28 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 24.01% and a return on equity of 27.22%. The business’s revenue was up 13.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.05 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 6.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.70, for a total transaction of $2,985,750.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,332,691 shares in the company, valued at approximately $309,548,095.70. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.70, for a total transaction of $2,985,750.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,332,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $309,548,095.70. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The stock was 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 directly owns 144,685 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,566,519.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 251,339 shares of company stock worth $36,377,482 over the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Totem Point Management LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 22.0% during the first quarter. Totem Point Management LLC now owns 3,171 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,857,000 after buying an additional 571 shares during the period. Somerville Kurt F boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 10.3% during the 1st quarter. Somerville Kurt F now owns 118 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $330,000 after acquiring an additional 11 shares during the last quarter. BCK Partners Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the first quarter worth approximately $2,564,000. Hall Capital Management Co. Inc. raised its stake in Alphabet by 53.2% in the first quarter. Hall Capital Management Co. Inc. now owns 144 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $402,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fairfield Bush & CO. lifted its position in Alphabet by 6.8% during the first quarter. Fairfield Bush & CO. now owns 3,370 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $9,412,000 after purchasing an additional 214 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.