Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading Up 1.2% Following Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s share price traded up 1.2% on Friday after Tigress Financial raised their price target on the stock from $176.00 to $210.00. Tigress Financial currently has a strong-buy rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $175.68 and last traded at $175.56. 5,071,619 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 83% from the average session volume of 29,581,096 shares. The stock had previously closed at $173.55.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $141.00 to $168.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Truist Financial increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $191.57.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.49, for a total value of $93,086.18. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 28,602 shares in the company, valued at $3,903,886.98. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total value of $508,150.26. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 144,685 shares in the company, valued at $22,566,519.45. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.49, for a total transaction of $93,086.18. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 28,602 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,903,886.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 205,935 shares of company stock valued at $31,178,987. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 497,874,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $75,144,172,000 after acquiring an additional 4,064,073 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.6% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 227,317,469 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $29,746,764,000 after buying an additional 12,070,681 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $15,441,917,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.7% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 67,684,197 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,857,154,000 after buying an additional 2,416,328 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 14.4% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 57,803,291 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,724,251,000 after buying an additional 7,275,757 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $2.16 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.84, a P/E/G ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.02. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $160.81 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $146.81. The company has a current ratio of 2.15, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS 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 the consensus estimate 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 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 10th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 10th.

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.