Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price Up 1.2% – What’s Next?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was up 1.2% on Friday . The stock traded as high as $346.20 and last traded at $344.82. Approximately 20,695,347 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 35% from the average session volume of 31,751,438 shares. The stock had previously closed at $340.67.

More Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Rosenblatt upgraded Alphabet to “strong buy” and reiterated a $410 price target, implying substantial upside and reinforcing the bullish view following Alphabet’s strong earnings report. Alphabet upgraded by Rosenblatt Securities
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s AI spending continues to attract major customers and suppliers. Marvell’s custom-chip agreement includes a warrant structure that would require up to $120 billion of cumulative purchases from Google for full vesting, signaling the potentially enormous scale of Alphabet’s TPU and AI infrastructure buildout. Google’s Marvell warrant
• Positive Sentiment: Waymo received approval to operate up to thousands of commercial robotaxis in Nevada and opened its lower-cost next-generation vehicle to riders in Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco. Lower production and operating costs could improve the long-term economics of Alphabet’s autonomous-driving unit. Waymo Nevada robotaxi approval
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s earnings momentum remains a support for the stock. The company recently exceeded consensus estimates for both adjusted earnings and revenue, while analysts and prominent investors—including Berkshire Hathaway—continue to highlight Alphabet’s AI positioning and valuation.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. New Street Research upped their target price on Alphabet from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 5th. BMO Capital Markets set a $465.00 price objective on Alphabet and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $425.00 to $445.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $420.19.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.2%

The business’s 50 day moving average price is $352.30 and its 200-day moving average price is $341.34. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market cap of $4.22 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.32, a PEG ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.24.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.89 by $6.22. The business had revenue of $119.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $117.07 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 54.77% and a return on equity of 51.32%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 7th will be given a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 4.42%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 196,931 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.46, for a total transaction of $3,832,277.26. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,998 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.29, for a total transaction of $3,142,911.42. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 75,290 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,298,044.10. This represents a 10.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 451,945 shares of company stock worth $12,382,714 in the last ninety days. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Safeguard Investment Advisory Group LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 5.0% in the second quarter. Safeguard Investment Advisory Group LLC now owns 9,387 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,355,000 after buying an additional 445 shares in the last quarter. Nykredit A S bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,004,749,000. EMC Capital Management acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the second quarter worth approximately $35,000. MBA Advisors LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 0.6% during the second quarter. MBA Advisors LLC now owns 9,621 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,438,000 after buying an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Emergent Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. Emergent Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,486 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,300,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Company Profile

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.