Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) PT Raised to $196.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price target hoisted by Truist Financial from $190.00 to $196.00 in a report released on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. Truist Financial currently has a buy rating on the information services provider’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also issued reports on GOOGL. Guggenheim increased their target price on Alphabet from $195.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $220.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. TD Securities increased their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $208.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Wednesday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $203.74.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $167.00 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $179.04 and its 200-day moving average is $160.48. The company has a market cap of $2.06 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 2.15. Alphabet has a 12 month low of $120.21 and a 12 month high of $191.75.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $70.60 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.44 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 12.27%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.67, for a total value of $113,668.94. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,880,764.28. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.67, for a total transaction of $113,668.94. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,880,764.28. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.08, for a total value of $252,120.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 4,391 shares in the company, valued at approximately $738,039.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 122,388 shares of company stock valued at $21,497,609. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $15,441,917,000. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 14.4% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 57,803,291 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,724,251,000 after purchasing an additional 7,275,757 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 493,810,251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $68,980,354,000 after purchasing an additional 6,374,756 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 39,754.9% in the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 6,025,667 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $841,725,000 after acquiring an additional 6,010,548 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4,894.1% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 5,445,396 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,606,670,000 after acquiring an additional 5,336,359 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.