Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Up 1.9% Following Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s share price rose 1.9% on Thursday after Tigress Financial raised their price target on the stock from $220.00 to $240.00. Tigress Financial currently has a strong-buy rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $161.19 and last traded at $161.87. Approximately 8,560,233 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 70% from the average daily volume of 28,152,682 shares. The stock had previously closed at $158.80.

A number of other analysts have also weighed in on GOOGL. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Westpark Capital upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Mizuho lowered their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lowered their target price on Alphabet from $205.00 to $189.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 25th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $199.46.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total value of $104,537.09. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,377,014.99. This represents a 4.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,690 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.51, for a total transaction of $3,281,671.90. Following the sale, the insider now owns 43,111 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,997,521.61. The trade was a 29.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 148,164 shares of company stock valued at $25,357,390. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $47,025,322,000 after purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 8.3% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $18,672,198,000 after buying an additional 7,574,417 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in Alphabet by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,635,878,000 after acquiring an additional 10,037,685 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 17.0% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,178,470,000 after acquiring an additional 10,135,430 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. The company has a market capitalization of $2.00 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.38, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $160.19 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $175.34.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results 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. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.89 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate 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 will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.51%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.