Alphabet Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) saw unusually large options trading on Friday. Stock investors purchased 392,187 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 23% compared to the average daily volume of 317,596 call options.

Alphabet Trading Up 10.2 %

NASDAQ GOOGL traded up $15.95 on Friday, reaching $171.95. The stock had a trading volume of 64,637,980 shares, compared to its average volume of 30,650,268. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.14 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.65, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 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. Alphabet has a 12-month low of $103.54 and a 12-month high of $174.71. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $147.85 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $141.39.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. Alphabet had a return on equity of 27.22% and a net margin of 24.01%. 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 company earned $1.05 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 6.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Truist Financial lifted their price target on Alphabet from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Alphabet from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. UBS Group lifted their price target on Alphabet from $150.00 to $166.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. TD Cowen lifted their price target on Alphabet from $170.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Alphabet from $165.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $187.82.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.70, for a total value of $2,985,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,332,691 shares in the company, valued at approximately $309,548,095.70. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 2,100 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated 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 approximately $1,035,402.16. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, 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. Insiders sold 253,439 shares of company stock worth $36,746,578 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Cooper Financial Group grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.4% during the third quarter. Cooper Financial Group now owns 46,144 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,038,000 after purchasing an additional 1,534 shares in the last quarter. Scharf Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 307.7% during the third quarter. Scharf Investments LLC now owns 40,717 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,328,000 after purchasing an additional 30,729 shares in the last quarter. Johnson Bixby & Associates LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet in the third quarter valued at $213,000. OneAscent Financial Services LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 54.9% in the third quarter. OneAscent Financial Services LLC now owns 6,636 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $868,000 after acquiring an additional 2,351 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 1.6% in the third quarter. Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 123,196 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $16,121,000 after acquiring an additional 1,995 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.