Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading 1.7% Higher After Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) rose 1.7% during trading on Thursday after Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on the stock from $200.00 to $220.00. Royal Bank Of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $197.95 and last traded at $193.52. Approximately 36,401,002 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 1% from the average daily volume of 36,750,051 shares. The stock had previously closed at $190.23.

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of other reports. KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $192.00 to $202.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday. Citizens Jmp upgraded shares of Alphabet from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $220.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, June 27th. Mizuho dropped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $189.00 to $191.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $211.32.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $3,448,820.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 243,400 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $45,213,984. This trade represents a 7.09% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total transaction of $5,801,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,559,892 shares in the company, valued at approximately $456,991,919.84. The trade was a 1.25% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 249,409 shares of company stock worth $43,523,710. 11.64% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $78,839,544,000 after purchasing an additional 14,307,345 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $47,025,322,000 after acquiring an additional 22,100,902 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 8.3% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $18,672,198,000 after buying an additional 7,574,417 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in Alphabet by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $13,635,878,000 after purchasing an additional 10,037,685 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Price Performance

The stock has a fifty day moving average of $175.77 and a two-hundred day moving average of $172.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.34 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.57, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last posted 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 $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.89 EPS. 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 company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be given a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet's payout ratio is 8.95%.

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.