Jefferies Financial Group Issues Positive Forecast for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock Price

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) had its price objective increased by Jefferies Financial Group from $230.00 to $285.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the information services provider’s stock.

GOOG has been the subject of several other reports. Barclays reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Citizens Jmp raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Alphabet from $186.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Finally, Roth Capital reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $235.33.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.4%

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $246.43 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90. The company has a market cap of $2.98 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.24, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.00. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $220.84 and a 200-day simple moving average of $186.43. Alphabet has a 1-year low of $142.66 and a 1-year high of $256.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced 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 $2.12 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.67 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th were paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.95%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 953 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $241.20, for a total value of $229,863.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 17,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,171,312.80. This trade represents a 5.22% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.44, for a total value of $149,664.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 5,716 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,425,799.04. This trade represents a 9.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 276,738 shares of company stock worth $59,135,475. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5.6% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 120,253 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $22,901,000 after purchasing an additional 6,410 shares during the period. Revisor Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 107.9% during the 1st quarter. Revisor Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,659 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $572,000 after purchasing an additional 1,899 shares during the period. Apella Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 46.2% during the 1st quarter. Apella Capital LLC now owns 10,025 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,615,000 after acquiring an additional 3,167 shares during the period. Channel Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 4.2% during the 1st quarter. Channel Wealth LLC now owns 46,622 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,284,000 after acquiring an additional 1,897 shares during the period. Finally, Sugar Maple Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 10.9% during the 1st quarter. Sugar Maple Asset Management LLC now owns 1,522 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $238,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.