Jefferies Financial Group Cuts Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target to $200.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price target decreased by Jefferies Financial Group from $235.00 to $200.00 in a research note released on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. Jefferies Financial Group currently has a buy rating on the information services provider’s stock.

GOOGL has been the subject of several other research reports. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Citigroup lowered their target price on Alphabet from $232.00 to $229.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $205.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $209.49.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL opened at $157.04 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $177.19 and its 200-day simple moving average is $176.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a market cap of $1.91 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.51, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. Alphabet has a 1 year low of $147.22 and a 1 year high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total value of $104,537.09. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares in the company, valued at $2,377,014.99. This trade represents a 4.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.80, for a total transaction of $284,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 21,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,142,195.20. This trade represents a 6.43 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 87,297 shares of company stock worth $15,936,270. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 10.1% during the third quarter. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,186 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $363,000 after acquiring an additional 201 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,283,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,871,384,000 after purchasing an additional 337,031 shares during the period. Cardano Risk Management B.V. increased its position in Alphabet by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 1,511,083 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $250,613,000 after buying an additional 15,724 shares during the period. Claro Advisors LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 16.5% during the 3rd quarter. Claro Advisors LLC now owns 37,307 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,187,000 after buying an additional 5,271 shares during the period. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.8% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 776,885 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $128,846,000 after buying an additional 28,612 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.