Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Up 3.2% After Analyst Upgrade

Key Points

• Shares of Alphabet Inc. rose 3.2% following an upgrade from Cantor Fitzgerald, which raised the price target from $201.00 to $265.00.
• The company recently reported a quarterly earnings per share (EPS) of $2.31, exceeding the consensus estimate of $2.15, with a revenue of $96.43 billion.
• Alphabet declared a quarterly dividend of $0.21 per share, resulting in an annualized dividend yield of 0.3%.

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) were up 3.2% on Monday after Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price target on the stock from $201.00 to $265.00. Cantor Fitzgerald currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $244.50 and last traded at $244.15. Approximately 24,471,488 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 32% from the average daily volume of 36,145,512 shares. The stock had previously closed at $236.57.

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Citigroup upped their price target on Alphabet from $225.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, September 15th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $218.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. KeyCorp upped their price target on Alphabet from $230.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. BNP Paribas Exane reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $172.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Four 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $247.40.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.44, for a total transaction of $149,664.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 5,716 shares in the company, valued at $1,425,799.04. The trade was a 9.50% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.41, for a total value of $7,910,825.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,402,119 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $584,699,785.79. This represents a 1.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 276,338 shares of company stock worth $59,062,683 over the last quarter. Insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 1.3% in the second 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 during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% during the second 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 during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% during the second 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 during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter valued at $21,944,208,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.2% during the second 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 during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Up 3.2%

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 has a market cap of $2.95 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.00. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $226.31 and a 200-day moving average price of $188.84.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is 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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