Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading 0.6% Higher Following Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) traded up 0.6% during trading on Tuesday after Wedbush raised their price target on the stock from $210.00 to $220.00. Wedbush currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $201.00 and last traded at $198.02. 9,855,296 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 48% from the average session volume of 19,118,453 shares. The stock had previously closed at $196.87.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on GOOGL. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $205.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Scotiabank raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Citizens Jmp downgraded Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $206.82.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total transaction of $6,870,532.68. Following the transaction, the director now owns 282,832 shares in the company, valued at $52,329,576.64. The trade was a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.23, for a total value of $473,929.82. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 26,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,406,343.27. The trade was a 9.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 155,887 shares of company stock worth $27,996,356 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Lantz Financial LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 10.8% in the second quarter. Lantz Financial LLC now owns 4,622 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $842,000 after purchasing an additional 452 shares in the last quarter. Spectrum Wealth Advisory Group LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet during the second quarter worth $218,000. Vance Wealth Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 4.0% in the second quarter. Vance Wealth Inc. now owns 3,089 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $563,000 after acquiring an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. Tobam grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 64.3% in the 2nd quarter. Tobam now owns 24,833 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,523,000 after acquiring an additional 9,718 shares during the period. Finally, Arjuna Capital increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. Arjuna Capital now owns 101,868 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $18,555,000 after purchasing an additional 874 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $2.39 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.93, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.98. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $181.36 and its 200-day moving average price is $172.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $72.85 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.55 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th were given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 10.61%.

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.