Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price Up 1.9% After Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) rose 1.9% on Thursday after Tigress Financial raised their price target on the stock from $220.00 to $240.00. Tigress Financial currently has a strong-buy rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $161.19 and last traded at $161.87. Approximately 8,560,233 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 70% from the average daily volume of 28,152,682 shares. The stock had previously closed at $158.80.

Several other research analysts have also issued reports on the company. Mizuho dropped their price objective on Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 target price (down previously from $230.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Citizens Jmp lowered shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Rosenblatt Securities dropped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $205.00 to $189.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on Alphabet from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 31st. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $199.46.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $156.16, for a total transaction of $5,075,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,685,196 shares in the company, valued at approximately $419,320,207.36. The trade was a 1.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. This trade represents a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 148,164 shares of company stock worth $25,357,390 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 3.2% during the 1st quarter. Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc. now owns 30,472 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,712,000 after purchasing an additional 936 shares during the period. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 124.8% during the first quarter. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 55,118 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,523,000 after buying an additional 30,603 shares during the period. Florida Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% during the first quarter. Florida Financial Advisors LLC now owns 16,311 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,523,000 after buying an additional 67 shares during the period. Bleakley Financial Group LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 6.9% during the first quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 154,426 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $23,880,000 after buying an additional 9,970 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ELCO Management Co. LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 12.1% in the first quarter. ELCO Management Co. LLC now owns 2,780 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $430,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.6 %

The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $160.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $175.35. The firm has a market cap of $1.97 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.04, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

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.