Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Up 0.6% Following Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s stock price traded up 0.6% 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 traded hands during trading, a decline of 48% from the average session volume of 19,118,453 shares. The stock had previously closed at $196.87.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on GOOGL. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Alphabet from $190.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. DA Davidson started coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $170.00 price target for the company. Finally, Bank of America reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $206.82.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.95, for a total transaction of $247,425.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 26,324 shares in the company, valued at $4,342,143.80. The trade was a 5.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,368 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.55, for a total transaction of $262,040.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,961,445.55. This represents a 6.20 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 155,887 shares of company stock valued at $27,996,356 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Lantz Financial LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 10.8% during the second quarter. Lantz Financial LLC now owns 4,622 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $842,000 after acquiring an additional 452 shares in the last quarter. Spectrum Wealth Advisory Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at about $218,000. Vance Wealth Inc. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 4.0% in the second quarter. Vance Wealth Inc. now owns 3,089 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $563,000 after buying an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. Tobam raised its position in Alphabet by 64.3% during the second 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV lifted its stake in Alphabet by 2.7% in the second quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV now owns 71,115 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,954,000 after acquiring an additional 1,876 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $2.42 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.26, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.98. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $180.84 and its 200 day simple moving average is $172.60. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.85 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.55 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.40%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.