Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading Up 2.1% on Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shares shot up 2.1% on Monday after Morgan Stanley raised their price target on the stock from $185.00 to $205.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $189.86 and last traded at $189.04. 17,406,774 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 46% from the average session volume of 32,127,130 shares. The stock had previously closed at $185.06.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on GOOGL. Susquehanna lowered their target price on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 25th. Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $203.00 price objective (up previously from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $202.22.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total value of $5,801,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,559,892 shares in the company, valued at $456,991,919.84. This represents a 1.25% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $3,448,820.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 243,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,213,984. This represents a 7.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 249,409 shares of company stock valued at $43,523,710 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 2.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $78,839,544,000 after buying an additional 14,307,345 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $47,025,322,000 after purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth approximately $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 8.3% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $18,672,198,000 after purchasing an additional 7,574,417 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 16.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,635,878,000 after purchasing an additional 10,037,685 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 2.7%

The business’s 50-day moving average price is $172.90 and its 200-day moving average price is $172.89. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $2.31 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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 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 dividend yield of 0.44%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.