Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading Up 1.1% Following Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s share price was up 1.1% during mid-day trading on Tuesday after BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on the stock from $200.00 to $208.00. BMO Capital Markets currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $183.47 and last traded at $183.64. Approximately 9,846,497 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 69% from the average daily volume of 31,835,025 shares. The stock had previously closed at $181.56.

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Wedbush set a $190.00 price objective on Alphabet and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $189.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Susquehanna decreased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 25th. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, BNP Paribas lowered shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.82.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total transaction of $5,801,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,559,892 shares in the company, valued at approximately $456,991,919.84. The trade was a 1.25% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $1,837,500.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 261,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,844,050. This represents a 3.85% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 182,943 shares of company stock valued at $31,223,348. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Jeppson Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Jeppson Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,287 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,637,000 after purchasing an additional 106 shares in the last quarter. LeConte Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 52.8% during the second quarter. LeConte Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,139 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $906,000 after purchasing an additional 1,775 shares in the last quarter. Sightline Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter valued at approximately $213,000. Palumbo Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 3.9% in the 2nd quarter. Palumbo Wealth Management LLC now owns 21,728 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,829,000 after buying an additional 809 shares during the last quarter. Finally, McAdam LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 17.0% during the 2nd quarter. McAdam LLC now owns 13,110 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,310,000 after buying an additional 1,905 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $171.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $173.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.21 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.29, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.89 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th were paid a $0.21 dividend. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.46%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

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.