Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Short Interest Update

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 50,030,000 shares, a growth of 20.1% from the November 30th total of 41,660,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 18,750,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.7 days.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $197.55, for a total transaction of $559,856.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,085,531.55. This represents a 12.05 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.07, for a total value of $3,759,075.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,129,306 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $355,743,153.42. This represents a 1.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 160,088 shares of company stock valued at $28,232,156 over the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. SK Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $230,000. IMS Capital Management increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% in the third quarter. IMS Capital Management now owns 33,879 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,664,000 after acquiring an additional 134 shares in the last quarter. 1ST Source Bank increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. 1ST Source Bank now owns 55,309 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $9,247,000 after purchasing an additional 1,245 shares during the period. DGS Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 2.0% during the third quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 26,962 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,508,000 after purchasing an additional 531 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Copley Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the third quarter valued at approximately $962,000. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOG has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $200.56.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $192.69 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. Alphabet has a one year low of $131.55 and a one year high of $202.88. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $179.19 and its 200 day moving average price is $173.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.36 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.02.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.55 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet will post 8.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.42%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.61%.

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.