Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock Price Up 1.1% Following Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) shares shot up 1.1% during trading on Wednesday after UBS Group raised their price target on the stock from $186.00 to $192.00. UBS Group currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $185.20 and last traded at $185.07. 5,945,918 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 72% from the average session volume of 21,437,439 shares. The stock had previously closed at $183.10.

GOOG has been the topic of several other reports. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Oppenheimer reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $220.00 target price (up from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Susquehanna reiterated a "positive" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Barclays reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $208.40.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 in the company, valued at $466,000,536.96. This trade represents a 1.27% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $1,575,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 255,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,695,000. This represents a 3.40% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 215,843 shares of company stock worth $37,288,490 in the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 111.8% in the 1st quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 161 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 1st quarter worth approximately $26,000. LSV Asset Management bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Robbins Farley lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 60.0% in the 2nd quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 160 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goodman Advisory Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 1st quarter worth approximately $32,000. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.6%

The firm has a market cap of $2.26 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.71, a P/E/G ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 1.77. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $173.39 and a 200-day moving average of $174.75.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. The business's revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.89 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.45%. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet's payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

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.