Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Reaches New 1-Year High at $180.89

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $180.89 and last traded at $179.58, with a volume of 2182897 shares. The stock had previously closed at $179.63.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have commented on GOOGL shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $141.00 to $168.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $170.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Wedbush raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $175.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $173.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $193.26.

Alphabet Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.15 and a quick ratio of 2.15. The firm has a market cap of $2.22 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.01. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $170.05 and its 200-day moving average price is $152.72.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.49 by $0.40. The company had revenue of $80.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $66.04 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 25.90% and a return on equity of 29.52%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.17 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 10th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 12.27%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.79, for a total transaction of $105,566.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,284 shares in the company, valued at $4,532,870.36. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.79, for a total value of $105,566.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,532,870.36. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 12,084 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.19, for a total transaction of $1,826,979.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 48,717 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,365,523.23. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 158,458 shares of company stock worth $26,375,053. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. RWQ Financial Management Services Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 8.2% in the 4th quarter. RWQ Financial Management Services Inc. now owns 61,499 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,591,000 after acquiring an additional 4,664 shares during the last quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management increased its stake in Alphabet by 55.4% in the fourth quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management now owns 214,443 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $29,956,000 after purchasing an additional 76,410 shares during the last quarter. Robbins Farley raised its holdings in Alphabet by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 15,006 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,096,000 after purchasing an additional 118 shares in the last quarter. Nebula Research & Development LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $787,000. Finally, CKW Financial Group lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 5.8% during the 1st quarter. CKW Financial Group now owns 13,830 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,150,000 after buying an additional 760 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

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.