Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Up 2.9% on Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s stock price shot up 2.9% on Monday after Wedbush raised their price target on the stock from $210.00 to $220.00. Wedbush currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $198.22 and last traded at $197.37. 9,335,889 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 41% from the average session volume of 15,814,833 shares. The stock had previously closed at $191.79.

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $204.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. KeyCorp increased their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Tigress Financial boosted their target price on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $217.00 price target (up from $215.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Loop Capital upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $206.82.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.23, for a total transaction of $473,929.82. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 26,349 shares in the company, valued at $4,406,343.27. The trade was a 9.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.95, for a total value of $247,425.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 26,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,342,143.80. This trade represents a 5.39 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 155,887 shares of company stock valued at $27,996,356 in the last quarter. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Alphabet by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 222,555,548 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $36,910,838,000 after buying an additional 743,369 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 134,030,679 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $22,154,651,000 after acquiring an additional 2,626,431 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 7.7% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,559,240,000 after purchasing an additional 4,567,275 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 2.5% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 49,857,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,268,933,000 after purchasing an additional 1,237,385 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Alphabet by 1.4% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 37,233,079 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,175,106,000 after purchasing an additional 523,416 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $180.84 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $172.60. The company has a market cap of $2.41 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.55 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.61%.

Alphabet Company Profile

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.