Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Reaches New 1-Year High at $188.41

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $188.41 and last traded at $188.40, with a volume of 1548195 shares. The stock had previously closed at $185.82.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $168.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $170.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, May 15th. Argus upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $170.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $166.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $193.66.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.8 %

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 company has a market cap of $2.34 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.05. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $175.05 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $155.60.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.49 by $0.40. The company had revenue of $80.54 billion during 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 quarter last year, the firm posted $1.17 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 10th were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 12.27%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total value of $600,175.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 9 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,655.91. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total value of $600,175.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 9 shares in the company, valued at $1,655.91. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 800 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.56, for a total transaction of $127,648.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 7,991 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,275,043.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 123,788 shares of company stock valued at $21,143,403. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Tributary Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the first quarter worth approximately $30,000. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $38,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 59.2% in the 1st quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. now owns 293 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 109 shares during the period. Finally, Richardson Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 87.5% in the 1st quarter. Richardson Capital Management LLC now owns 300 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 140 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

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.