Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Up 0.9% Following Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report)'s stock price shot up 0.9% during trading on Thursday after Loop Capital raised their price target on the stock from $155.00 to $170.00. Loop Capital currently has a hold rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $165.99 and last traded at $165.26. 6,478,542 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 79% from the average session volume of 30,599,672 shares. The stock had previously closed at $163.86.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. KeyCorp increased their target price on Alphabet from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Truist Financial increased their price target on Alphabet from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. UBS Group increased their price target on Alphabet from $150.00 to $166.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on Alphabet from $160.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $190.60.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.29, for a total value of $3,291,525.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,377,691 shares in the company, valued at approximately $347,832,416.39. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.29, for a total transaction of $3,291,525.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,377,691 shares in the company, valued at $347,832,416.39. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 2,100 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.76, for a total transaction of $369,096.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 5,891 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,035,402.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 275,129 shares of company stock worth $40,382,765. Insiders own 0.88% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 493,810,251 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $68,980,354,000 after buying an additional 6,374,756 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 5.6% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 227,317,469 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $29,746,764,000 after purchasing an additional 12,070,681 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $15,441,917,000. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.7% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 67,684,197 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $8,857,154,000 after buying an additional 2,416,328 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,220,857 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $6,316,902,000 after acquiring an additional 1,472,043 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.7 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a current ratio of 2.15. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $149.22 and a 200-day moving average of $141.95. The firm has a market cap of $2.07 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.02.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.49 by $0.40. Alphabet had a return on equity of 29.52% and a net margin of 25.90%. The firm had revenue of $80.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $66.04 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.17 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 10th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%.

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.