Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $240.47 and last traded at $239.63, with a volume of 37672216 shares. The stock had previously closed at $234.04.
Analyst Ratings Changes
Several research firms have issued reports on GOOGL. Westpark Capital lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Citizens Jmp upgraded shares of Alphabet from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $220.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Oppenheimer restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $270.00 price target (up previously from $235.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, September 2nd. Phillip Securities lowered shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "moderate buy" rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $218.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have given a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $221.44.
Check Out Our Latest Research Report on Alphabet
Alphabet Stock Performance
The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $198.22 and a 200 day simple moving average of $176.17. The company has a market capitalization of $2.90 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.52, a P/E/G ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.01.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 analysts' expectations of $93.60 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Alphabet Dividend Announcement
The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.95%.
Insider Activity at Alphabet
In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $199.92, for a total transaction of $6,497,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,462,392 shares in the company, valued at approximately $492,281,408.64. This trade represents a 1.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.70, for a total transaction of $4,637,754.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 42,999 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,371,905.30. The trade was a 35.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 254,710 shares of company stock worth $49,208,380 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 11.55% of the company's stock.
Institutional Trading of Alphabet
Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 516,559,609 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $91,033,300,000 after acquiring an additional 6,733,278 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $40,524,841,000 after acquiring an additional 4,008,374 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 141,615,284 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $24,857,017,000 after acquiring an additional 4,224,497 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at $21,944,208,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 44,151,820 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $7,780,875,000 after acquiring an additional 503,306 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Alphabet Company Profile
(
Get Free Report)
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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