Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Reaches New 52-Week High – What’s Next?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s share price hit a new 52-week high on Saturday . The company traded as high as $209.23 and last traded at $206.72, with a volume of 25689130 shares. The stock had previously closed at $200.62.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Lake Street Capital restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $210.00 target price (up from $185.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Citizens Jmp upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $215.19.

Alphabet Trading Up 3.0%

The stock has a market capitalization of $2.50 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.01, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $187.71 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $174.60.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $93.67 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. Alphabet’s revenue was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.89 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 8.95%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the director directly owned 243,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,213,984. The trade was a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,559,892 shares in the company, valued at approximately $456,991,919.84. The trade was a 1.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 254,719 shares of company stock valued at $47,223,172. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 416,753,033 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $73,927,821,000 after acquiring an additional 5,182,111 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.3% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 188,914,125 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $33,511,477,000 after purchasing an additional 2,428,266 shares during the period. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 580,897.4% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 135,087,705 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $23,963,208,000 after purchasing an additional 135,064,454 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 0.4% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 107,760,033 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,022,926,000 after purchasing an additional 441,177 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 9.9% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,971,861,000 after purchasing an additional 9,243,959 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.