Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Price Target Raised to $260.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) had its price target increased by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $232.00 to $260.00 in a report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the information services provider’s stock.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on GOOG. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $235.00 price objective (up from $220.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Scotiabank increased their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Lake Street Capital reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Barclays reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $227.56.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.1%

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $235.17 on Wednesday. Alphabet has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $236.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $196.65 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $176.89. The company has a market cap of $2.84 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.19. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%.The business had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.67 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.89 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Alphabet will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.95%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total transaction of $200,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 6,916 shares in the company, valued at $1,383,200. This trade represents a 12.63% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total value of $3,448,820.16. Following the transaction, the director owned 243,400 shares in the company, valued at $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 90 days, insiders have sold 254,710 shares of company stock valued at $49,208,380. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 580,897.4% during the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 135,087,705 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $23,963,208,000 after acquiring an additional 135,064,454 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at $4,298,572,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet during the 1st quarter valued at $2,622,943,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 18,562.3% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,323,323 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,237,733,000 after acquiring an additional 14,246,573 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Alphabet by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $64,299,725,000 after acquiring an additional 9,687,855 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% 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.