Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Up 0.4% on Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) shot up 0.4% during trading on Friday after Scotiabank raised their price target on the stock from $212.00 to $240.00. Scotiabank currently has a sector outperform rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $201.93 and last traded at $200.35. 3,501,939 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 77% from the average session volume of 15,318,407 shares. The stock had previously closed at $199.58.

GOOG has been the topic of a number of other reports. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citizens Jmp cut shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Citigroup increased their price target on Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $205.13.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total value of $3,239,868.40. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 43,981 shares in the company, valued at $8,471,620.22. The trade was a 27.66 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total transaction of $550,702.88. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,468,029.04. The trade was a 13.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 133,387 shares of company stock worth $24,368,654 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. FMR LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 114,802,133 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,193,768,000 after purchasing an additional 5,655,022 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 103,557,486 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $17,247,208,000 after acquiring an additional 259,213 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 10.3% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 33,334,082 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,573,125,000 after acquiring an additional 3,113,395 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.1% in the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 15,424,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,578,793,000 after acquiring an additional 1,291,274 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,024,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,843,149,000 after purchasing an additional 264,962 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $187.95 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $175.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.47 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.78, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.55 earnings per share. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 10.61%.

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.