Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Upgraded at Phillip Securities

Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) to a strong-buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning, Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Scotiabank initiated coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, October 11th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 price objective on the stock. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Pivotal Research boosted their price target on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $200.56.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOG opened at $170.68 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95. Alphabet has a 1-year low of $129.40 and a 1-year high of $193.31. The stock has a market cap of $2.10 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.04. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $163.87 and a 200 day moving average price of $170.72.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its 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. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.55 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 7.97 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total transaction of $429,587.55. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,421,948.46. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.35, for a total transaction of $3,652,875.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,182,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $354,310,204.75. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total transaction of $429,587.55. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,182 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,421,948.46. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 232,052 shares of company stock worth $38,086,723. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Alphabet by 19.7% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 84,171,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,815,986,000 after buying an additional 13,876,534 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter valued at $1,378,708,000. Capital International Investors increased its position in Alphabet by 9.3% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,716,562 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,355,724,000 after purchasing an additional 7,470,042 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in Alphabet by 65.9% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 6,294,332 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,052,349,000 after purchasing an additional 2,500,621 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 51.8% in the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 6,416,150 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $976,923,000 after purchasing an additional 2,190,795 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

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.