Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Sets New 1-Year High After Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday after TD Securities raised their price target on the stock from $200.00 to $220.00. The stock traded as high as $191.75 and last traded at $191.18, with a volume of 15931072 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $188.98.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on GOOGL. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 11th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Alphabet from $155.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Truist Financial lifted their target price on Alphabet from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Wedbush lifted their target price on Alphabet from $175.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $195.06.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total value of $600,175.38. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 9 shares in the company, valued at $1,655.91. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total value of $600,175.38. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 9 shares in the company, valued at $1,655.91. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.67, for a total value of $113,668.94. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,284 shares in the company, valued at $4,880,764.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 122,988 shares of company stock worth $21,015,755 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 31.8% in the 3rd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 2,710,105 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $354,644,000 after acquiring an additional 654,278 shares in the last quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 16,618.9% during the 3rd quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 835,947 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $109,392,000 after buying an additional 830,947 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 7.8% during the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 25,064,614 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,279,955,000 after buying an additional 1,809,910 shares in the last quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 211,743 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $27,709,000 after buying an additional 1,153 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arden Trust Co lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 23.9% during the 4th quarter. Arden Trust Co now owns 6,187 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $864,000 after buying an additional 1,193 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $177.69 and a 200-day simple moving average of $157.65. 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 market cap of $2.29 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.49 by $0.40. Alphabet had a return on equity of 29.52% and a net margin of 25.90%. The firm had revenue of $80.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $66.04 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.17 EPS. Analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 10th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 12.27%.

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.