Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Lifted to “Strong-Buy” at Pivotal Research

Pivotal Research upgraded shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) to a strong-buy rating in a research note released on Tuesday morning, Zacks.com reports.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. BMO Capital Markets reissued an outperform rating and set a $222.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Loop Capital reissued a hold rating and issued a $170.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 3rd. TD Securities upped their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Tigress Financial raised their target price on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a strong-buy rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Alphabet from $215.00 to $220.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $201.14.

Alphabet Price Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $165.86 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $162.06 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $167.00. Alphabet has a 12 month low of $120.21 and a 12 month high of $191.75. The company has a market capitalization of $2.05 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.44, a P/E/G ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. The business had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $70.60 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.44 EPS. Analysts expect that Alphabet will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 9th were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 12.27%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total value of $5,570,188.20. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 312,210 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,765,346. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total value of $429,587.55. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,182 shares in the company, valued at $4,421,948.46. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total value of $5,570,188.20. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 312,210 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,765,346. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 217,592 shares of company stock valued at $35,922,911. 11.55% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc increased its position in Alphabet by 75.0% in the 2nd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 140 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Kings Path Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter worth approximately $36,000. Tributary Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 1st quarter worth $30,000. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, Denver PWM LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at $41,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

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.