Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Upgraded at Mizuho

Mizuho upgraded shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) to a strong-buy rating in a report released on Monday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Several other analysts have also recently issued reports on GOOGL. UBS Group increased their target price on Alphabet from $192.00 to $202.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Alphabet from $208.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Westpark Capital increased their target price on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Phillip Securities cut Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 8th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $201.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, September 24th. Four equities 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $237.10.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.7%

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $244.90 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. Alphabet has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $256.00. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $219.14 and its 200-day moving average price is $184.66. The company has a market capitalization of $2.96 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.16. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%.The firm had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $93.60 billion. On average, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.95%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $245.00, for a total value of $680,610.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 17,293 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,236,785. The trade was a 13.84% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total value of $3,448,820.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 243,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,213,984. This trade represents a 7.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 243,285 shares of company stock worth $50,994,787. 11.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at $21,944,208,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 1st quarter worth $4,317,606,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of 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 worth $2,686,640,000 after acquiring an additional 15,159,273 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $78,839,544,000 after acquiring an additional 14,307,345 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 51.7% in the 2nd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 31,817,684 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,607,232,000 after acquiring an additional 10,843,853 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.