Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target Raised to $224.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price objective increased by Rosenblatt Securities from $191.00 to $224.00 in a report issued on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a neutral rating on the information services provider’s stock.

GOOGL has been the topic of several other reports. KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Guggenheim lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $196.00 to $201.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Loop Capital reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $190.00 target price (up previously from $165.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have assigned a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $222.33.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.2%

Shares of GOOGL opened at $235.00 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $195.79 and its two-hundred day moving average is $175.48. Alphabet has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $235.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.84 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.03, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.16. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. The company had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.60 billion. On average, research analysts predict that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 8.95%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the director directly owned 243,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,213,984. The trade was a 7.09% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $199.92, for a total transaction of $6,497,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,462,392 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $492,281,408.64. The trade was a 1.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 254,710 shares of company stock valued at $49,208,380. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 516,559,609 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $91,033,300,000 after acquiring an additional 6,733,278 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Alphabet by 1.8% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $40,524,841,000 after purchasing an additional 4,008,374 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 141,615,284 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $24,857,017,000 after acquiring an additional 4,224,497 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter valued at approximately $21,944,208,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.2% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 44,151,820 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,780,875,000 after acquiring an additional 503,306 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.