Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock Price Up 0.6% – Should You Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s stock price traded up 0.6% on Friday . The company traded as high as $166.37 and last traded at $165.45. 4,109,910 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 79% from the average session volume of 19,570,859 shares. The stock had previously closed at $164.51.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Pivotal Research began coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $215.00 target price on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities cut Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Friday, June 28th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Oppenheimer decreased their price target on Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $186.90.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.5 %

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 has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.38, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.04. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $163.18 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $169.52.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $84.22 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. The company’s revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.44 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The stock was 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the firm’s 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 31,334 shares in the company, valued at $5,264,112. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.66, for a total transaction of $3,772,350.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,159,885 shares in the company, valued at approximately $362,126,319.10. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 220,426 shares of company stock worth $35,993,340 over the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 11.9% in the first quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 109,878 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $16,730,000 after buying an additional 11,646 shares in the last quarter. Colonial River Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 5.3% in the 2nd quarter. Colonial River Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,126 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $390,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares in the last quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.6% during the 1st quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 187,229 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $28,508,000 after purchasing an additional 8,201 shares during the last quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.6% during the second quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 11,366 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,097,000 after purchasing an additional 498 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alliance Wealth Management Group grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 93.6% during the first quarter. Alliance Wealth Management Group now owns 3,910 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $595,000 after purchasing an additional 1,890 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.