Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading 1.1% Higher Following Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) were up 1.1% during trading 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 traded hands during trading, a decline of 68% from the average daily volume of 27,480,695 shares. The stock had previously closed at $188.40.

A number of other analysts have also commented on the stock. Loop Capital boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $210.00 price target (up from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. JMP Securities raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price target on Alphabet from $206.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $206.69.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total transaction of $75,437.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 16,490 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,820,779.40. This represents a 2.60 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.07, for a total value of $3,759,075.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,129,306 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $355,743,153.42. This represents a 1.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 178,957 shares of company stock worth $31,358,687 over the last ninety days. 11.55% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% in the third 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 in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 2.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 134,030,679 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,154,651,000 after acquiring an additional 2,626,431 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 2.5% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 49,857,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,268,933,000 after buying an additional 1,237,385 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 49,472,478 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,011,412,000 after acquiring an additional 238,403 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.5 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $174.55 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $171.33. The firm has a market cap of $2.34 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.85 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.55 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 EPS for the current fiscal 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 given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 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.