Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading Up 1.5% on Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report)'s share price traded up 1.5% during mid-day trading on Tuesday after Citigroup raised their price target on the stock from $200.00 to $203.00. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $167.54 and last traded at $167.61. 12,378,826 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 60% from the average session volume of 30,627,970 shares. The stock had previously closed at $165.19.

A number of other analysts have also issued reports on the company. Wedbush set a $190.00 target price on Alphabet and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. UBS Group set a $195.00 target price on Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. DA Davidson cut their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and set a $178.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $200.17.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred 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. This trade represents a 1.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total value of $1,962,705.76. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 49,037 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,181,333.08. The trade was a 19.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 228,070 shares of company stock valued at $37,745,632. 11.64% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted 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 valued at $78,839,544,000 after purchasing an additional 14,307,345 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position 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 acquiring an additional 7,574,417 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors grew its position in Alphabet by 16.2% in the fourth 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 acquiring an additional 10,037,685 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 2.3%

The company's 50-day moving average is $165.10 and its 200-day moving average is $174.61. The firm has a market cap of $2.07 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.03, a P/E/G ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 1.77.

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

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.49%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.36%.

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.