Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Up 1.1% After Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s stock price rose 1.1% on Thursday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on the stock from $212.00 to $232.00. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $193.03 and last traded at $190.51. Approximately 8,848,702 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 68% from the average daily volume of 27,480,695 shares. The stock had previously closed at $188.40.

Several other research firms have also issued reports on GOOGL. Pivotal Research increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $204.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $206.69.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total transaction of $75,437.46. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 16,490 shares in the company, valued at $2,820,779.40. This trade represents a 2.60 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.84, for a total value of $230,804.28. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,183 shares in the company, valued at $4,927,257.72. This trade represents a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 178,957 shares of company stock valued at $31,358,687. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 43,005.6% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 18,743,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $31,086,250,000 after acquiring an additional 18,700,111 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 587.4% during the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 10,690,326 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,772,991,000 after acquiring an additional 9,135,056 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in Alphabet by 116.4% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 8,670,225 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,437,957,000 after acquiring an additional 4,662,809 shares during the period. Wulff Hansen & CO. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 18,810.2% during the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,434,260 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $807,700,000 after purchasing an additional 4,410,811 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 91.0% during the 2nd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 7,928,470 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,450,599,000 after acquiring an additional 3,777,527 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Price Performance

The company’s 50-day moving average is $174.55 and its 200-day moving average is $171.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.34 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.39, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.42%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.