Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading Up 1% Following Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s share price was up 1% during trading on Thursday after Loop Capital raised their price target on the stock from $170.00 to $185.00. Loop Capital currently has a hold rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $179.21 and last traded at $178.32. Approximately 5,249,243 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 81% from the average daily volume of 27,105,869 shares. The stock had previously closed at $176.51.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the company. UBS Group increased their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $204.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Truist Financial increased their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $208.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. JMP Securities increased their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price target on Alphabet from $206.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have given a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $205.90.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.44, for a total value of $109,420.08. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 32,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,136,807.48. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.44, for a total value of $109,420.08. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 32,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,136,807.48. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.41, for a total transaction of $1,862,805.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 319,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $56,765,168.06. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 242,552 shares of company stock valued at $40,287,253 in the last ninety days. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 497,874,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $75,144,172,000 after buying an additional 4,064,073 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in Alphabet by 14.4% during the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 57,803,291 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,724,251,000 after acquiring an additional 7,275,757 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in Alphabet by 0.5% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 49,472,478 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $9,011,412,000 after acquiring an additional 238,403 shares during the period. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in Alphabet by 1.7% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 35,412,299 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,344,778,000 after acquiring an additional 597,756 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 1.8% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 23,465,190 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,274,184,000 after acquiring an additional 418,204 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Trading Up 2.4 %

The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $162.86 and a 200 day simple moving average of $169.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.23 trillion, a P/E ratio of 23.97, a PEG ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.55 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.99 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 10.61%.

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.