JPMorgan Chase & Co. Raises Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target to $200.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price objective boosted by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $165.00 to $200.00 in a research report report published on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an overweight rating on the information services provider’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on the company. Wolfe Research raised their price target on Alphabet from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Friday. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Alphabet from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Friday. Wedbush boosted their price target on Alphabet from $175.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Friday. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price target on Alphabet from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their price target on Alphabet from $160.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Friday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $187.82.

Alphabet Stock Up 10.2 %

NASDAQ:GOOGL 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 price-to-earnings ratio of 26.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.05. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $147.85 and a 200-day simple moving average of $141.42. The company has a current ratio of 2.10, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $86.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $70.77 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.01% and a net margin of 25.90%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.05 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 6.82 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 10th will be paid 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 is Monday, June 10th.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.70, for a total transaction of $2,985,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,332,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $309,548,095.70. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, Director Frances Arnold sold 230 shares of the business’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 transaction of $35,433.80. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 15,104 shares in the company, valued at $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. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.70, for a total value of $2,985,750.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,332,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $309,548,095.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 253,439 shares of company stock valued at $36,746,578 in the last three months. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $15,441,917,000. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 5.6% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 227,317,469 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $29,746,764,000 after purchasing an additional 12,070,681 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 493,810,251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $68,980,354,000 after purchasing an additional 6,374,756 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado grew its holdings in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings 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 valued at $7,606,670,000 after buying an additional 5,336,359 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.