Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Sees Large Growth in Short Interest

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) saw a significant increase in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 36,940,000 shares, an increase of 8.1% from the March 31st total of 34,180,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 22,740,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.6 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 2,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.76, for a total transaction of $369,096.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 5,891 shares in the company, valued at $1,035,402.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 2,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The stock was 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 owns 5,891 shares in the company, valued at $1,035,402.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’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 value of $2,985,750.00. Following the completion of 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 253,289 shares of company stock worth $36,724,534. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $4,101,040,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 11.3% during the third 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 last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $11,600,970,000. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.8% during the third 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 last quarter. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 198.7% during the fourth 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 last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.7 %

Shares of GOOG stock traded up $2.80 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $167.44. 7,670,103 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 22,695,822. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $150.09 and its 200-day moving average is $143.16. The company has a market cap of $2.08 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.63, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a current ratio of 2.15, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. Alphabet has a fifty-two week low of $104.50 and a fifty-two week high of $176.42.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.51 by $0.38. The business had revenue of $80.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $78.75 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 29.52% and a net margin of 25.90%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.17 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Alphabet will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.