Investors Buy High Volume of Call Options on Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) saw some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Investors purchased 520,481 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 11% compared to the average daily volume of 469,774 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Citizens Jmp reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $515.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. HSBC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $420.00 price objective (down from $435.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, July 17th. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $425.00 price objective (up from $405.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $450.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-five have given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $422.16.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s Waymo unit plans to launch autonomous, all-electric ride-hailing services in Singapore by 2028, marking its first Southeast Asian market. The expansion supports the view that Waymo could become a meaningful commercial business beyond Alphabet’s core search and advertising operations. Waymo to bring autonomous ride-hailing to Singapore in 2028
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet, NVIDIA and Emerald AI launched an alliance focused on flexible AI data centers that can reduce electricity demand and potentially receive faster grid interconnection approvals. The initiative could help address a major constraint on Alphabet’s expanding AI infrastructure. NVIDIA, Google, Emerald AI launch AI data center power coalition
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and market commentators remain bullish on Alphabet’s resilient Search business, Gemini’s progress, Google Cloud growth and potential monetization across AI, YouTube and custom chips. Google Cloud’s large backlog is viewed as evidence of durable demand. Could GOOG stock rise by up to 40%?
• Positive Sentiment: Berkshire Hathaway successor Greg Abel reportedly views Alphabet’s AI ambitions favorably, adding credibility to the long-term investment case for the company’s AI strategy. Warren Buffett’s Successor Greg Abel Is Wagering Heavily on an AI-Driven Future

Alphabet Stock Up 0.9%

NASDAQ GOOGL traded up $3.28 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $350.61. 23,670,651 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 31,001,238. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.64 and a current ratio of 2.72. Alphabet has a one year low of $235.84 and a one year high of $408.61. The company’s 50-day moving average is $345.35 and its two-hundred day moving average is $344.88. The company has a market capitalization of $4.29 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.22.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $6.22. The business had revenue of $119.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $117.07 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 54.77% and a return on equity of 51.32%. On average, analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 20.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 7th were given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 4th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 4.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Marsida Saraci sold 449 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $333.20, for a total transaction of $149,606.80. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 27,386 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,125,015.20. The trade was a 1.61% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 196,931 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.46, for a total transaction of $3,832,277.26. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 450,875 shares of company stock valued at $11,984,482 over the last quarter. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 45,394,474 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $14,208,470,000 after purchasing an additional 208,362 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 38,106,033 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $11,927,189,000 after buying an additional 583,078 shares during the period. Amundi grew its stake in Alphabet by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 33,203,350 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $11,865,809,000 after buying an additional 1,457,371 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Nuveen LLC now owns 29,166,806 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,129,210,000 after acquiring an additional 478,848 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 10.1% during the second quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 17,724,321 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,334,186,000 after acquiring an additional 1,631,721 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc is a technology and holding company founded in 2015 through a restructuring of Google. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and operates globally, serving consumers, businesses, advertisers and developers across numerous countries and regions.

Alphabet’s largest business is Google Services, which includes Google Search, online advertising, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Google Maps, Google Play and hardware products such as Pixel devices. These products support activities including internet search, digital content distribution, mobile computing, online communications and advertising.