Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target Raised to $200.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price objective boosted by Jefferies Financial Group from $180.00 to $200.00 in a research report report published on Friday, Benzinga reports. Jefferies Financial Group currently has a buy rating on the information services provider’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Truist Financial lifted their target price on Alphabet from $158.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $165.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an outperform rating and set a $155.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $165.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Roth Mkm decreased their price objective on Alphabet from $166.00 to $164.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $187.82.

Alphabet Stock Up 10.2 %

GOOGL stock opened at $171.95 on Friday. Alphabet has a twelve month low of $103.54 and a twelve month high of $174.71. The company has a market cap of $2.14 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.05. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $147.85 and its 200 day simple moving average is $141.42. The company has a quick ratio of 2.10, a current ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.01% and a net margin of 25.90%. The business had revenue of $86.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $70.77 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.05 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 6.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 10th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 10th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 230 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.06, for a total transaction of $35,433.80. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 15,104 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,326,922.24. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 230 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.06, for a total transaction of $35,433.80. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 15,104 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,326,922.24. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total transaction of $94,769.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,009,032.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 253,439 shares of company stock worth $36,746,578. Insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $15,441,917,000. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 227,317,469 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $29,746,764,000 after buying an additional 12,070,681 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in 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 buying 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 valued at $841,725,000 after buying an additional 6,010,548 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 5,336,359 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

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.