Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Trading 0.6% Higher After Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) shares rose 0.6% during trading on Wednesday after TD Cowen raised their price target on the stock from $200.00 to $220.00. TD Cowen currently has a buy rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $192.45 and last traded at $191.51. Approximately 2,724,901 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 87% from the average daily volume of 20,717,674 shares. The stock had previously closed at $190.44.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Rosenblatt Securities downgraded Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $165.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $174.38.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $186.74, for a total transaction of $4,201,650.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,227,385 shares in the company, valued at $415,941,874.90. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $186.74, for a total transaction of $4,201,650.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,227,385 shares in the company, valued at $415,941,874.90. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.56, for a total value of $127,648.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 7,991 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,275,043.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 146,288 shares of company stock valued at $25,345,053 over the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $4,101,040,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 19.7% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 84,171,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,815,986,000 after buying an additional 13,876,534 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 1st quarter worth about $1,378,708,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $11,600,970,000. Finally, Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 9.3% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,716,562 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,355,724,000 after buying an additional 7,470,042 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $2.36 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a current ratio of 2.15, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $177.92 and a 200-day simple moving average of $158.32.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.51 by $0.38. The firm had revenue of $80.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $78.75 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 29.52% and a net margin of 25.90%. The business’s revenue was up 15.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.17 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a — dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 10th were given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 12.27%.

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.