Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading Up 0.9% on Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was up 0.9% during trading on Thursday after Loop Capital raised their price target on the stock from $155.00 to $170.00. Loop Capital currently has a hold rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $165.99 and last traded at $165.26. Approximately 6,478,542 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 79% from the average daily volume of 30,599,672 shares. The stock had previously closed at $163.86.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Alphabet from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Alphabet from $155.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Wedbush boosted their price target on Alphabet from $175.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $165.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on Alphabet from $168.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $190.60.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total transaction of $508,150.26. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 144,685 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,566,519.45. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $139.51, for a total transaction of $41,853.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,291 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,296,187.41. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total value 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 275,129 shares of company stock valued at $40,382,765 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $15,441,917,000. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5.6% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 227,317,469 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $29,746,764,000 after purchasing an additional 12,070,681 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in 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 period. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 39,754.9% in 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 period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4,894.1% in 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 period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.4 %

The stock has a market cap of $2.08 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.65, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.02. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $149.67 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $142.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.15 and a quick ratio of 2.10.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by $0.40. The business had revenue of $80.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $66.04 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 29.52% and a net margin of 25.90%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.17 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.57 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 10th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%.

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.