Citigroup Raises Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target to $190.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its target price boosted by Citigroup from $168.00 to $190.00 in a research report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the information services provider’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on the company. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their target price on Alphabet from $180.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Susquehanna raised their target price on Alphabet from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a positive rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Alphabet from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an outperform rating and set a $185.00 price target (up previously from $178.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, JMP Securities reaffirmed a market outperform rating and set a $160.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $187.82.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $171.95 on Friday. Alphabet has a 1-year low of $103.54 and a 1-year high of $174.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.10 and a quick ratio of 2.10. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $147.85 and its 200 day moving average price is $141.42. The firm has a market cap of $2.14 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $86.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $70.77 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.05 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet will post 6.82 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 230 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 30th. The stock was 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 230 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.06, for a total value of $35,433.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 15,104 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,326,922.24. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.29, for a total value of $3,291,525.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,377,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $347,832,416.39. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 253,439 shares of company stock worth $36,746,578. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $15,441,917,000. FMR LLC raised its position 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 purchasing an additional 12,070,681 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position 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 purchasing an additional 6,374,756 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado raised its position 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 purchasing an additional 6,010,548 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position 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 valued at $7,606,670,000 after purchasing an additional 5,336,359 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.