Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price Up 1.8% – Here’s Why

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGLGet Free Report) rose 1.8% during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $305.63 and last traded at $305.46. Approximately 20,767,010 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 39% from the average daily volume of 33,825,570 shares. The stock had previously closed at $299.99.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on GOOGL. President Capital upped their price objective on Alphabet from $323.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 10th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up from $365.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. DA Davidson upped their price objective on Alphabet from $300.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Alphabet from $375.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 6th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $367.33.

View Our Latest Analysis on Alphabet

Alphabet Trading Up 1.8%

The business has a 50 day moving average of $308.62 and a two-hundred day moving average of $297.26. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The firm has a market cap of $3.70 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.26, a PEG ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.12.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGLGet Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%.The business had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. Analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Investors of record on Monday, March 9th were paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 7.77%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 617 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.63, for a total value of $178,701.71. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 10,093 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,923,235.59. This represents a 5.76% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.89, for a total value of $10,006,425.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,642,060 shares in the company, valued at approximately $505,573,853.40. This trade represents a 1.94% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 2,101,844 shares of company stock worth $115,147,751 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth $416,217,000. Griffin Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 13.9% during the 3rd quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. now owns 58,731 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $14,277,000 after purchasing an additional 7,180 shares in the last quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 23.6% during the 3rd quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC now owns 22,219 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,401,000 after purchasing an additional 4,241 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.2% during the 4th quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 274,761 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $86,000,000 after purchasing an additional 23,107 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wright Investors Service Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 21.2% during the 3rd quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. now owns 50,064 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,171,000 after purchasing an additional 8,746 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

About Alphabet

(Get Free Report)

Alphabet Inc is the holding company created in 2015 to organize Google and a portfolio of businesses developing technologies beyond Google’s core internet services. Its principal operations are led by Google, which builds and operates consumer-facing products such as Google Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Workspace, as well as advertising platforms (Google Ads and AdSense) that historically generate the majority of its revenue. Google also develops consumer hardware (Pixel phones, Nest smart-home devices, Chromecast) and developer and distribution platforms such as Google Play.

Beyond Google’s consumer and advertising businesses, Alphabet invests in enterprise and infrastructure offerings through Google Cloud, which provides cloud computing, data analytics and productivity services to businesses and institutions.

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