Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Upgraded at Cantor Fitzgerald

Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) to a hold rating in a research note published on Thursday morning, Zacks.com reports.

Other analysts have also issued reports about the company. Wolfe Research upgraded Alphabet to a strong-buy rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Rosenblatt Securities downgraded Alphabet from a buy rating to a neutral rating and set a $181.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $182.86.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOG stock opened at $152.13 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $172.50 and a 200-day moving average price of $165.93. Alphabet has a 1-year low of $121.46 and a 1-year high of $193.31. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm has a market cap of $1.88 trillion, a PE ratio of 23.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $84.22 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. The business’s revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.44 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 9th will be given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 12.27%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total value of $5,570,188.20. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 312,210 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,765,346. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.68, for a total transaction of $3,570,300.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,137,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $339,160,251.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total transaction of $5,570,188.20. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 312,210 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,765,346. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 200,532 shares of company stock valued at $34,055,874 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Partnership Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $34,000. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 9,200.0% during the 2nd quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 186 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet in the second quarter worth about $37,000. Finally, HWG Holdings LP purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter worth approximately $40,000. 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.