Phillip Securities Upgrades Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) to “Strong-Buy”

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

GOOG has been the topic of several other research reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup lifted 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. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Scotiabank assumed coverage on Alphabet in a report on Friday, October 11th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 price objective on the stock. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $200.56.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOG opened at $170.68 on Friday. Alphabet has a twelve month low of $129.40 and a twelve month high of $193.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.10 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.64, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $163.87 and its 200 day moving average price is $170.72.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.39 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.55 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet will post 7.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 10.61%.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total transaction of $5,570,188.20. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 312,210 shares in the company, valued at $50,765,346. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Alphabet news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 312,210 shares in the company, valued at $50,765,346. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $354,310,204.75. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 232,052 shares of company stock valued at $38,086,723. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Harbour Investments Inc. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 0.8% in the third quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 43,084 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,203,000 after buying an additional 337 shares during the last quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 142,279 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $23,788,000 after acquiring an additional 2,751 shares in the last quarter. Keystone Financial Services boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter. Keystone Financial Services now owns 10,466 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,750,000 after acquiring an additional 459 shares in the last quarter. Everhart Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.3% in the 3rd quarter. Everhart Financial Group Inc. now owns 26,737 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,453,000 after acquiring an additional 1,096 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fountainhead AM LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 17.2% during the 3rd quarter. Fountainhead AM LLC now owns 4,925 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $823,000 after acquiring an additional 724 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.