Alphabet’s (GOOGL) “Market Outperform” Rating Reaffirmed at Citizens Jmp

Citizens Jmp reissued their market outperform rating on shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. Citizens Jmp currently has a $515.00 target price on the information services provider’s stock.

GOOGL has been the subject of several other research reports. Dbs Bank increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $460.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $390.00 price target (up from $345.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 30th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $455.00 price target (up from $435.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, July 17th. Evercore increased their price target on Alphabet from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $395.00 to $465.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $414.54.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $342.09 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market cap of $4.14 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a 50 day moving average of $366.14 and a 200-day moving average of $338.86. Alphabet has a 1-year low of $187.82 and a 1-year high of $408.61.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.64 by $6.47. The firm had revenue of $119.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $117.07 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 14.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th were issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 8th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 6.71%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $351.28, for a total transaction of $39,343.36. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 18,833 shares in the company, valued at $6,615,656.24. This trade represents a 0.59% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total value of $2,077,531.25. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 159,415 shares of company stock worth $7,672,279. Corporate insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $20,886,000 after purchasing an additional 4,110 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,826,000 after buying an additional 506 shares during the last quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 17.6% during the 2nd quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY now owns 3,888 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $685,000 after buying an additional 581 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 11.2% during the 2nd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 485,486 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $85,557,000 after buying an additional 48,805 shares in the last quarter. Finally, United Bank raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 6.9% during the 2nd quarter. United Bank now owns 48,204 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,495,000 after buying an additional 3,120 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

More Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet beat Q2 earnings and revenue estimates by a wide margin, signaling strong underlying business momentum. Alphabet (GOOGL) Beats Q2 Earnings and Revenue Estimates
• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud’s 82% growth suggests Alphabet’s AI spending is translating into faster cloud demand and improving monetization. Google quarterly cloud revenue growth beats expectations
• Positive Sentiment: YouTube ad revenue growth and strength across search and advertising add evidence that core businesses are still healthy. YouTube Ad Revenue Rises 13% In Q2 To Surpass $11 Billion, Helping To Drive Strong Report By Parent Alphabet

About Alphabet

Alphabet Inc is the holding company created in 2015 to organize Google and a portfolio of businesses developing technologies beyond Google’s core internet services. Its principal operations are led by Google, which builds and operates consumer-facing products such as Google Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Workspace, as well as advertising platforms (Google Ads and AdSense) that historically generate the majority of its revenue. Google also develops consumer hardware (Pixel phones, Nest smart-home devices, Chromecast) and developer and distribution platforms such as Google Play.

Beyond Google’s consumer and advertising businesses, Alphabet invests in enterprise and infrastructure offerings through Google Cloud, which provides cloud computing, data analytics and productivity services to businesses and institutions.