Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Hits New 52-Week High After Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Monday after Arete raised their price target on the stock from $220.00 to $300.00. Arete currently has a buy rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $317.75 and last traded at $318.07, with a volume of 15795310 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $299.66.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on GOOGL. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Alphabet from $288.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets set a $294.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 9th. HSBC lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $295.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $270.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, CICC Research raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $240.00 to $303.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have issued a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $307.65.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total value of $4,408,034.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 42,985 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,635,348.70. The trade was a 29.30% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.05, for a total transaction of $694,638.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 14,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,629,725.80. This represents a 16.06% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 225,174 shares of company stock worth $58,095,223. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 1.3% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 516,559,609 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $91,033,300,000 after buying an additional 6,733,278 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $40,524,841,000 after acquiring an additional 4,008,374 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 141,615,284 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $24,857,017,000 after acquiring an additional 4,224,497 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at $21,944,208,000. Finally, Capital World Investors lifted its position in Alphabet by 28.0% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,910,542,000 after acquiring an additional 11,605,785 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The stock’s 50 day moving average is $263.73 and its two-hundred day moving average is $215.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.84 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 36.08% and a net margin of 32.23%. Analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 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, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 8.28%.

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.