Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Upgraded at Citizens Jmp

Citizens Jmp upgraded shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) from a market perform rating to an outperform rating in a research note released on Friday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. Citizens Jmp currently has $220.00 price objective on the information services provider's stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also weighed in on GOOGL. Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Wedbush set a $190.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Citigroup reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $203.00 target price (up from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Susquehanna reduced their target price on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a "positive" rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 25th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $199.95.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.3%

GOOGL stock traded down $2.33 on Friday, reaching $176.20. The company's stock had a trading volume of 63,005,261 shares, compared to its average volume of 31,374,101. 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 business has a fifty day simple moving average of $166.45 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $174.26. The firm has a market cap of $2.14 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.64, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.68, for a total value of $5,742,100.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,555,196 shares of the company's stock, valued at $451,452,029.28. The trade was a 1.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total transaction of $104,537.09. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,377,014.99. This trade represents a 4.21% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 216,195 shares of company stock worth $35,764,898. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. AdviceOne Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 13.7% during the 1st quarter. AdviceOne Advisory Services LLC now owns 1,465 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $226,000 after purchasing an additional 177 shares in the last quarter. AG2R LA Mondiale Gestion D Actifs bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the first quarter valued at $36,948,000. Swedbank AB raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.9% in the 1st quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 8,834,915 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,366,231,000 after acquiring an additional 331,087 shares during the last quarter. Real Talk Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 6.8% during the first quarter. Real Talk Capital LLC now owns 2,883 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $446,000 after buying an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Howe & Rusling Inc. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 9.3% during the 1st quarter. Howe & Rusling Inc. now owns 5,855 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $905,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.