Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target Raised to $203.00 at Citigroup

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price objective hoisted by Citigroup from $200.00 to $203.00 in a report released on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the information services provider’s stock.

Several other research firms have also commented on GOOGL. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Cantor Fitzgerald cut their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $159.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Wedbush set a $190.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, UBS Group set a $195.00 target price on Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.83.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $166.77 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77. Alphabet has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $165.10 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $174.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.02 trillion, a PE ratio of 18.59, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.89 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Alphabet will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.50%. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total transaction of $104,537.09. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,303 shares in the company, valued at $2,377,014.99. The trade was a 4.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total value of $1,962,705.76. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 49,037 shares in the company, valued at $8,181,333.08. This represents a 19.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 228,070 shares of company stock worth $37,745,632 over the last three months. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $78,839,544,000 after buying an additional 14,307,345 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $47,025,322,000 after acquiring an additional 22,100,902 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in Alphabet by 8.3% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $18,672,198,000 after acquiring an additional 7,574,417 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 16.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,635,878,000 after purchasing an additional 10,037,685 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.