Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Hits New 1-Year High on Analyst Upgrade

Key Points

• Alphabet's stock reached a new 52-week high of $256.96 after Roth Capital upgraded the price target from $210 to $265, maintaining a buy rating.
• Multiple analysts have raised their price targets for Alphabet, with Jefferies increasing theirs to $285 and Royal Bank of Canada to $260, indicating strong confidence in the stock.
• Alphabet's recent quarterly earnings report showed $2.31 earnings per share and revenue of $96.43 billion, surpassing analysts' expectations, and the company also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.21 per share.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report)'s stock price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday after Roth Capital raised their price target on the stock from $210.00 to $265.00. Roth Capital currently has a buy rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $256.96 and last traded at $254.83, with a volume of 7484876 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $251.03.

Other equities research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Wedbush raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, September 22nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have assigned a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $250.57.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total value of $3,448,820.16. Following the transaction, the director owned 243,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,213,984. The trade was a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.50, for a total transaction of $8,108,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,397,392 shares in the company, valued at $598,149,304. The trade was a 1.34% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 244,438 shares of company stock worth $53,216,085 in the last 90 days. 11.64% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. 25 LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 14.3% during the third quarter. 25 LLC now owns 1,785 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $434,000 after acquiring an additional 223 shares in the last quarter. Syntegra Private Wealth Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 8.3% in the third quarter. Syntegra Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 7,758 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,886,000 after buying an additional 592 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.7% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 42,362 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $10,298,000 after buying an additional 704 shares in the last quarter. Sheets Smith Wealth Management lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 16.1% in the third quarter. Sheets Smith Wealth Management now owns 16,068 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $3,906,000 after buying an additional 2,228 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Horst & Graben Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 12.6% in the third quarter. Horst & Graben Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,182 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $531,000 after buying an additional 244 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.8%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $229.41 and its 200-day moving average price is $190.28. The stock has a market cap of $3.09 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.14, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.60 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 8th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is currently 8.95%.

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.

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