Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target Raised to $217.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price objective increased by Bank of America from $210.00 to $217.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the information services provider’s stock.

Several other research firms have also commented on GOOGL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Susquehanna decreased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $171.00 to $196.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $218.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $211.32.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.5%

GOOGL stock opened at $193.18 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $175.77 and its two-hundred day moving average is $172.93. The company has a market cap of $2.34 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $207.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 1.90.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.43%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.95%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total transaction of $5,801,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,559,892 shares in the company, valued at $456,991,919.84. The trade was a 1.25% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $3,448,820.16. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 243,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,213,984. This trade represents a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 249,409 shares of company stock valued at $43,523,710. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $24,383,677,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $4,317,606,000. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $47,025,322,000 after buying an additional 22,100,902 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 16,993.2% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,483,898,000 after buying an additional 15,968,487 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $78,839,544,000 after acquiring an additional 14,307,345 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.