Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price Up 1.8% – What’s Next?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s share price rose 1.8% during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $367.93 and last traded at $366.46. Approximately 26,331,551 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 20% from the average session volume of 32,856,074 shares. The stock had previously closed at $359.91.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet was highlighted on CNBC’s “Final Trades,” with investor Kevin Simpson naming GOOGL as a preferred pick, which can reinforce bullish sentiment around the stock. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple bullish articles pointed to Alphabet’s strong AI and cloud position, including its large stake in Anthropic and continued growth in Google Cloud revenue, which supports the longer-term investment case. Article Title Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Recent coverage also framed Alphabet as a stock some investors continue to buy on weakness after a strong run, suggesting the market still sees upside but may be debating valuation. Article Title Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet is facing renewed scrutiny over data privacy, after a TechCrunch report said Google’s settings allow more user media to be stored and used to train AI unless users opt out, which could raise trust and regulatory concerns. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet also lost a long-running European Android antitrust case, with the EU’s €4.1 billion fine upheld, adding to regulatory risk around its core search and mobile ecosystem. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Separate reports about Google employee departures and Waymo hiccups add softer headline risk, though these are less likely to move the stock on their own. Article Title Article Title

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on GOOGL. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Alphabet from $435.00 to $416.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $393.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. Evercore lifted their target price on Alphabet from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $450.00 price objective (up from $375.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, May 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $413.54.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.8%

The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $371.05 and its 200-day simple moving average is $334.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 1.92. The firm has a market cap of $4.44 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.95, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.24.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $2.47. The firm had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $106.98 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 8th were given a $0.22 dividend. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 6.71%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,998 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.29, for a total value of $3,142,911.42. Following the sale, the insider owned 75,290 shares in the company, valued at $26,298,044.10. This represents a 10.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total transaction of $2,077,531.25. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 160,465 shares of company stock worth $8,020,511 in the last ninety days. 11.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the third quarter worth approximately $416,217,000. NewEdge Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 11.8% during the 4th quarter. NewEdge Wealth LLC now owns 887,209 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $277,696,000 after purchasing an additional 93,293 shares during the period. World Investment Advisors boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.2% during the fourth quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 274,761 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $86,000,000 after purchasing an additional 23,107 shares during the last quarter. Retail Employees Superannuation Pty Ltd as trustee for Retail Employees Superannuation Trust acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $28,902,000. Finally, Private Advisory Group LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 12.2% in the fourth quarter. Private Advisory Group LLC now owns 24,717 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,736,000 after purchasing an additional 2,678 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.