Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading Up 2.5% After Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s stock price rose 2.5% during mid-day trading on Wednesday after Citigroup raised their price target on the stock from $200.00 to $203.00. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $171.78 and last traded at $170.89. Approximately 14,017,412 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 54% from the average daily volume of 30,721,054 shares. The stock had previously closed at $166.77.

Several other research analysts have also issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on Alphabet from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Alphabet from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $200.17.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This trade represents a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total value of $104,537.09. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,303 shares in the company, valued at $2,377,014.99. The trade was a 4.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 216,306 shares of company stock valued at $35,782,927. Insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Swedbank AB lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.9% during the 1st quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 8,834,915 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,366,231,000 after buying an additional 331,087 shares in the last quarter. Real Talk Capital LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 6.8% in the 1st quarter. Real Talk Capital LLC now owns 2,883 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $446,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. Howe & Rusling Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 9.3% in the 1st quarter. Howe & Rusling Inc. now owns 5,855 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $905,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD increased its stake in Alphabet by 5.3% in the 1st quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 246,867 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $38,173,000 after acquiring an additional 12,386 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Maple Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 7.1% in the 1st quarter. Maple Capital Management Inc. now owns 9,913 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,533,000 after acquiring an additional 658 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Trading Up 2.3%

The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $165.45 and a 200-day simple moving average of $174.58. The firm has a market cap of $2.07 trillion, a P/E ratio of 19.03, a P/E/G ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.01.

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

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.49%. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 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.