Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Raised to “Strong-Buy” at Phillip Securities

Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) to a strong-buy rating in a report released on Friday morning, Zacks.com reports.

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of other research reports. China Renaissance upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Scotiabank upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Truist Financial boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have issued a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.51.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $169.24 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.08 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.03. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $162.49 and a 200 day simple moving average of $169.20. Alphabet has a 12-month low of $127.90 and a 12-month high of $191.75. 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:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.85 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.55 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 7.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total transaction of $429,587.55. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,182 shares in the company, valued at $4,421,948.46. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of the company’s 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 $4,421,948.46. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.35, for a total value of $3,652,875.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,182,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $354,310,204.75. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 232,052 shares of company stock worth $38,086,723. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Pachira Investments Inc. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.2% during the first quarter. Pachira Investments Inc. now owns 4,192 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $633,000 after buying an additional 208 shares during the period. PCG Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4.6% during the 1st quarter. PCG Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,446 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $520,000 after purchasing an additional 153 shares in the last quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.3% during the first quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. now owns 98,232 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $14,826,000 after buying an additional 4,089 shares during the period. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 0.3% in the first quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC now owns 43,079 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,502,000 after buying an additional 132 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 16.0% in the first quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 239,116 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $36,090,000 after buying an additional 32,925 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% 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.