Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Now Covered by HSBC

HSBC started coverage on shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in a research note published on Tuesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm issued a buy rating and a $285.00 price target on the information services provider’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on GOOGL. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Saturday, September 27th. Tigress Financial upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $240.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Loop Capital reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $190.00 target price (up previously from $165.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $192.00 to $202.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have issued a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $242.98.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $245.76 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90. The company has a fifty day moving average of $223.41 and a two-hundred day moving average of $187.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.97 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.17, a P/E/G ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $256.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.16. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. The business had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.60 billion. As a group, research analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share 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 dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.95%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the 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 owned 243,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,213,984. This trade represents a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.70, for a total transaction of $4,637,754.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 42,999 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,371,905.30. This trade represents a 35.65% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 276,738 shares of company stock valued at $59,135,475 over the last 90 days. 11.55% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Mystic Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 6.7% during the first quarter. Mystic Asset Management Inc. now owns 28,454 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,400,000 after purchasing an additional 1,791 shares in the last quarter. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% during the first quarter. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co now owns 27,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,187,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Cypress Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.1% during the first quarter. Cypress Capital LLC now owns 14,310 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,213,000 after purchasing an additional 563 shares in the last quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 17.9% during the first quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 88,187 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,637,000 after purchasing an additional 13,371 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alaethes Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.1% during the first quarter. Alaethes Wealth LLC now owns 7,646 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,182,000 after purchasing an additional 84 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.