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

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) were up 1.1% 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 $184.14 and last traded at $184.08. Approximately 8,970,743 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 72% from the average daily volume of 31,900,357 shares. The stock had previously closed at $182.00.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on GOOGL. JMP Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “market perform” rating to a “market outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Citigroup restated a “buy” rating and set a $203.00 price target (up previously from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Westpark Capital restated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, May 8th. DA Davidson cut their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Alphabet from $175.00 to $177.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $200.86.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 9,000 shares of Alphabet 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 $1,575,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 255,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $44,695,000. The trade was a 3.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,559,892 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $456,991,919.84. This represents a 1.25% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 183,343 shares of company stock valued at $31,296,140 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co raised its holdings in Alphabet by 0.3% during the first quarter. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co now owns 27,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,187,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Rockbridge Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $3,119,000. Cypress Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4.1% during the 1st quarter. Cypress Capital LLC now owns 14,310 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,213,000 after buying an additional 563 shares during the period. Optivise Advisory Services LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,464 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,035,000 after acquiring an additional 403 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Community Bank N.A. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. Community Bank N.A. now owns 46,173 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,741,000 after acquiring an additional 2,790 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $171.67 and a 200 day simple moving average of $173.20. The company has a market cap of $2.22 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.40, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th were paid a $0.21 dividend. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.46%. Alphabet’s dividend 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.