Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price Up 1.2% Following Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shares rose 1.2% on Wednesday after HSBC raised their price target on the stock from $335.00 to $370.00. HSBC currently has a buy rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $321.58 and last traded at $319.63. Approximately 40,072,922 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 9% from the average daily volume of 36,804,047 shares. The stock had previously closed at $315.81.

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. President Capital raised their target price on Alphabet from $258.00 to $323.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on Alphabet from $260.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Citic Securities lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $230.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 3rd. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane assumed coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, November 24th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $355.00 target price on the stock. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have assigned a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $312.06.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.00, for a total transaction of $680,610.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 17,293 shares in the company, valued at $4,236,785. The trade was a 13.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total value of $4,408,034.72. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 42,985 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,635,348.70. This represents a 29.30% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 193,628 shares of company stock valued at $50,942,622 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. NBZ Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 85.7% during the 1st quarter. NBZ Investment Advisors LLC now owns 195 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 90 shares during the period. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at about $31,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 36.4% during the 2nd quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. MJT & Associates Financial Advisory Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the first quarter worth approximately $50,000. Finally, Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd bought a new stake in Alphabet in the third quarter worth approximately $53,000. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $3.86 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $271.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $221.67. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. The company had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 35.00%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.28%.

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.