Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Hits New 1-Year High – Here’s What Happened

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s share price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $204.13 and last traded at $204.67, with a volume of 2635669 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $200.87.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on GOOGL. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Pivotal Research lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $210.00 price objective (up from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $209.82.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $188.19 and a 200 day simple moving average of $174.03. The company has a market cap of $2.50 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 0.98.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $72.85 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.55 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total value of $232,950.47. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 23,515 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,007,191.15. The trade was a 5.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total transaction of $75,437.46. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 16,490 shares in the company, valued at $2,820,779.40. This represents a 2.60 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 121,630 shares of company stock valued at $22,258,133 in the last 90 days. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Schear Investment Advisers LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 17.0% during the 3rd quarter. Schear Investment Advisers LLC now owns 33,751 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,598,000 after acquiring an additional 4,905 shares during the last quarter. Trinity Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. Trinity Financial Advisors LLC now owns 4,423 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $771,000 after acquiring an additional 190 shares during the last quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. boosted its position in Alphabet by 27.9% during the 3rd quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. now owns 25,275 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,192,000 after acquiring an additional 5,516 shares during the last quarter. abrdn plc boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 10.7% in the 3rd quarter. abrdn plc now owns 6,305,717 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,037,196,000 after buying an additional 611,233 shares during the last quarter. Finally, StoneCrest Wealth Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. StoneCrest Wealth Management Inc. now owns 21,509 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,567,000 after buying an additional 140 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Company Profile

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.