Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Given New $300.00 Price Target at Arete

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its target price boosted by Arete from $220.00 to $300.00 in a research report report published on Monday morning,MarketScreener reports. Arete currently has a buy rating on the information services provider’s stock.

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of other reports. BMO Capital Markets set a $294.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 9th. Citic Securities boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. CIBC raised their price target on shares of Alphabet to $315.00 in a research note on Monday, October 20th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, November 1st. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have given a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $307.65.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $318.58 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.84 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.42, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $263.73 and a 200 day moving average of $215.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. Alphabet has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $319.48.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. The business had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 36.08% and a net margin of 32.23%. Sell-side analysts anticipate 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, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.28%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $288.26, for a total value of $800,786.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 11,739 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,383,884.14. The trade was a 19.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $296.64, for a total value of $9,640,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,304,619 shares in the company, valued at approximately $683,642,180.16. The trade was a 1.39% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 225,174 shares of company stock worth $58,095,223 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 242.9% in the first quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 168 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth about $31,000. IMA Advisory Services Inc. acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. NBZ Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 85.7% in the 1st quarter. NBZ Investment Advisors LLC now owns 195 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 90 shares during the period. Finally, iSAM Funds UK Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $53,000. 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.