Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Up 1.1% After Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) were up 1.1% during trading on Wednesday after UBS Group raised their price target on the stock from $186.00 to $192.00. UBS Group currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $185.20 and last traded at $185.07. Approximately 5,945,918 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 72% from the average daily volume of 21,437,439 shares. The stock had previously closed at $183.10.

Several other research analysts have also recently commented on GOOG. Tigress Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Barclays reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Westpark Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. BNP Paribas lowered Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, Citigroup restated a “sell” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $208.40.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $1,837,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 261,966 shares in the company, valued at $45,844,050. The trade was a 3.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the company’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 $105,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 6,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,192,275. This represents a 8.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 183,343 shares of company stock valued at $31,296,140 over the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 5.6% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 120,253 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,901,000 after buying an additional 6,410 shares in the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG raised its holdings in Alphabet by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 506,535 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $96,465,000 after purchasing an additional 20,855 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,551,533,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 44.6% in the 4th quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 19,559 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,725,000 after acquiring an additional 6,033 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Horizon Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Horizon Investments LLC now owns 10,071 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,918,000 after purchasing an additional 748 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.4%

The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $172.81 and a 200-day simple moving average of $174.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77. The firm has a market cap of $2.23 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The firm had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

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.