Alphabet Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Stock traders bought 392,187 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 23% compared to the typical volume of 317,596 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday. JMP Securities lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $160.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Needham & Company LLC lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $160.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Roth Mkm lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $164.00 to $202.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $187.82.

Alphabet Stock Up 10.2 %

Shares of Alphabet stock traded up $15.95 during trading on Friday, reaching $171.95. The company had a trading volume of 64,637,980 shares, compared to its average volume of 30,650,268. The company has a market cap of $2.14 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.05. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $147.85 and its 200-day moving average is $141.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a current ratio of 2.10. Alphabet has a fifty-two week low of $103.54 and a fifty-two week high of $174.71.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. Alphabet had a net margin of 24.01% and a return on equity of 27.22%. The business had revenue of $86.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $70.77 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.05 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 6.78 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 2,100 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.76, for a total value of $369,096.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 5,891 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,035,402.16. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 2,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.76, for a total transaction of $369,096.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 5,891 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,035,402.16. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, 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 directly owns 2,332,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $309,548,095.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 253,439 shares of company stock valued at $36,746,578. Company insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth about $15,441,917,000. FMR LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 227,317,469 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $29,746,764,000 after purchasing an additional 12,070,681 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 493,810,251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $68,980,354,000 after purchasing an additional 6,374,756 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado grew its position in Alphabet by 39,754.9% in the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 6,025,667 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $841,725,000 after purchasing an additional 6,010,548 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 4,894.1% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 5,445,396 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,606,670,000 after purchasing an additional 5,336,359 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% 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.