Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Short Interest Up 8.1% in April

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of 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 days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.6 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Ruth Porat sold 48,077 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.22, for a total value of $6,597,125.94. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 1,777,106 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $243,854,485.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Alphabet news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total transaction of $508,150.26. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 144,685 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,566,519.45. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Ruth Porat sold 48,077 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.22, for a total transaction of $6,597,125.94. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 1,777,106 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $243,854,485.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 275,129 shares of company stock valued at $40,382,765 over the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Tanager Wealth Management LLP grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Tanager Wealth Management LLP now owns 122,012 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $18,577,000 after purchasing an additional 682 shares during the period. StoneX Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 8.4% during the 1st quarter. StoneX Group Inc. now owns 20,275 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,087,000 after purchasing an additional 1,570 shares during the period. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 8.0% during the 1st quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 46,961 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,150,000 after purchasing an additional 3,465 shares during the period. KFA Private Wealth Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 11.8% during the 1st quarter. KFA Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 6,996 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,065,000 after purchasing an additional 738 shares during the period. Finally, Cherry Tree Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 119.8% during the 1st quarter. Cherry Tree Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,449 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $373,000 after purchasing an additional 1,335 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $165.57 on Thursday. Alphabet has a twelve month low of $104.50 and a twelve month high of $176.42. The company’s 50 day moving average is $150.52 and its 200 day moving average is $143.31. The company has a current ratio of 2.15, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The company has a market cap of $2.06 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.05.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Alphabet Company Profile

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.