Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Up 1.1% After Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s share price rose 1.1% during mid-day trading on Friday after JMP Securities raised their price target on the stock from $250.00 to $290.00. JMP Securities currently has a market outperform rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $256.00 and last traded at $254.72. Approximately 55,394,786 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 50% from the average daily volume of 36,833,996 shares. The stock had previously closed at $252.03.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Loop Capital reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $190.00 price objective (up previously from $165.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $218.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $192.00 to $202.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 4th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have assigned a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $225.54.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $2,786,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 240,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $44,656,704. The trade was a 5.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.44, for a total transaction of $149,664.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 5,716 shares in the company, valued at $1,425,799.04. The trade was a 9.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 258,088 shares of company stock valued at $52,405,304. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at about $21,944,208,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at about $4,317,606,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 16,993.2% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,483,898,000 after purchasing an additional 15,968,487 shares during the last quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 17,667.7% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 15,245,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,686,640,000 after purchasing an additional 15,159,273 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $78,839,544,000 after purchasing an additional 14,307,345 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.1%

The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The company has a market capitalization of $3.08 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.01. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $209.36 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $180.31.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.16. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. The company had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.60 billion. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th were issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.95%.

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.