Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target Raised to $220.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its target price increased by Needham & Company LLC from $210.00 to $220.00 in a research note published on Thursday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the information services provider’s stock.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $218.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $171.00 to $196.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, Citigroup restated a “buy” rating and set a $203.00 price objective (up from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $211.32.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of GOOGL opened at $193.18 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 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 stock has a market cap of $2.34 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.00. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $175.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $172.93.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Kellett Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 17.3% during the second quarter. Kellett Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,219 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $744,000 after buying an additional 621 shares in the last quarter. Community Bank N.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% during the second quarter. Community Bank N.A. now owns 49,298 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,688,000 after buying an additional 1,146 shares during the last quarter. Heartland Bank & Trust Co boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% in the second quarter. Heartland Bank & Trust Co now owns 45,267 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,977,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares during the period. NorthRock Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 7.9% in the second quarter. NorthRock Partners LLC now owns 128,956 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $22,726,000 after acquiring an additional 9,393 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Verdence Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 3.0% during the second quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 76,579 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,495,000 after acquiring an additional 2,244 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

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.