JPMorgan Chase & Co. Issues Positive Forecast for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock Price

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) had its price objective upped by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $200.00 to $232.00 in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an overweight rating on the information services provider's stock.

GOOG has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Tigress Financial reissued a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $171.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. KeyCorp dropped their price target on Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $215.19.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.5%

GOOG stock traded up $0.88 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $194.08. The company's stock had a trading volume of 31,074,800 shares, compared to its average volume of 27,020,362. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 1.90. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $176.86 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $174.53. Alphabet has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $208.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.36 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.67, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.19. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%. The business had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.67 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.95%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.38, for a total transaction of $5,992,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,527,392 shares of the company's stock, valued at $466,000,536.96. The trade was a 1.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total value of $3,448,820.16. Following the sale, the director directly owned 243,400 shares of the company's stock, valued at $45,213,984. This trade represents a 7.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 249,409 shares of company stock valued at $43,523,710 over the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 5.6% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 120,253 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $22,901,000 after acquiring an additional 6,410 shares during the period. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 506,535 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $96,465,000 after acquiring an additional 20,855 shares during the period. Murphy & Mullick Capital Management Corp acquired a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $151,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 8.2% in the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 8,117,784 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,567,788,000 after acquiring an additional 612,182 shares during the period. Finally, Sava Infond d.o.o. acquired a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $429,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company's stock.

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.