Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading 0.5% Higher Following Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) were up 0.5% during trading on Wednesday after Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on the stock from $215.00 to $220.00. The company traded as high as $190.88 and last traded at $189.96. Approximately 3,806,523 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 86% from the average daily volume of 28,015,613 shares. The stock had previously closed at $188.98.

GOOGL has been the subject of several other research reports. Argus increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $170.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $196.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $215.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $200.00 price objective (up from $160.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $200.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $194.34.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $157.41, for a total transaction of $3,541,725.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,303,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $362,516,961.51. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Alphabet news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total value of $600,175.38. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 9 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,655.91. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $157.41, for a total transaction of $3,541,725.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,303,011 shares in the company, valued at approximately $362,516,961.51. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 123,788 shares of company stock valued at $21,143,403. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $15,441,917,000. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position 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 worth $8,724,251,000 after purchasing an additional 7,275,757 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 493,810,251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $68,980,354,000 after purchasing an additional 6,374,756 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado increased its position in Alphabet by 39,754.9% during the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 6,025,667 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $841,725,000 after purchasing an additional 6,010,548 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 4,894.1% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 5,445,396 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,606,670,000 after purchasing an additional 5,336,359 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.4 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.15 and a quick ratio of 2.15. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $176.41 and its 200 day moving average is $156.91. The stock has a market cap of $2.35 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.49 by $0.40. Alphabet had a net margin of 25.90% and a return on equity of 29.52%. The company had revenue of $80.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $66.04 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.17 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 10th were given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 12.27%.

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.