Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price Up 3.2% After Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s stock price traded up 3.2% during mid-day trading on Monday after Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price target on the stock from $201.00 to $265.00. Cantor Fitzgerald currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $244.50 and last traded at $244.15. 24,471,488 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 32% from the average session volume of 36,145,512 shares. The stock had previously closed at $236.57.

GOOGL has been the topic of several other research reports. DA Davidson boosted their target price on Alphabet from $180.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. Mizuho set a $295.00 price objective on Alphabet and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 29th. Loop Capital reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $190.00 price objective (up previously from $165.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. Finally, BNP Paribas downgraded Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have assigned a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $247.40.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.44, for a total value of $149,664.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 5,716 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,425,799.04. This represents a 9.50% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 953 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $241.20, for a total value of $229,863.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 17,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,171,312.80. This represents a 5.22% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 276,338 shares of company stock worth $59,062,683. 11.55% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Mystic Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 6.7% during the 1st quarter. Mystic Asset Management Inc. now owns 28,454 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,400,000 after purchasing an additional 1,791 shares during the last quarter. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% during the 1st 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. Cypress Capital LLC lifted 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 worth $2,213,000 after purchasing an additional 563 shares during the last quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 17.9% during the 1st quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 88,187 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,637,000 after purchasing an additional 13,371 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alaethes Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Alaethes Wealth LLC now owns 7,646 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,182,000 after purchasing an additional 84 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Up 3.2%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.95 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.00, a PEG ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.00. The business has a 50 day moving average of $227.30 and a two-hundred day moving average of $189.47.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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.