Piper Sandler Reaffirms “Overweight” Rating for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Piper Sandler reaffirmed their overweight rating on shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in a research report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $200.00 target price on the information services provider’s stock, up from their prior target price of $160.00.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Alphabet from $175.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Mizuho boosted their price target on Alphabet from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Friday. 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 report on Friday. KeyCorp boosted their price target on Alphabet from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, JMP Securities boosted their price target on Alphabet from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a market outperform rating in a research report on Friday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $187.82.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOGL opened at $171.95 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $2.14 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.37, a PEG ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.05. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $147.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $141.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.10 and a quick ratio of 2.10. Alphabet has a 12 month low of $103.54 and a 12 month high of $174.71.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company 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 $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 10th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 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 legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 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 legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total value of $94,769.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,920 shares in the company, valued at $4,009,032.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 253,439 shares of company stock valued at $36,746,578 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Tributary Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 1st quarter worth $30,000. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $30,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. acquired a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $38,000. Richardson Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 87.5% during the 1st quarter. Richardson Capital Management LLC now owns 300 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $45,000 after acquiring an additional 140 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meritage Group LP lifted its position in Alphabet by 1,061.5% during the 3rd quarter. Meritage Group LP now owns 302 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 276 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently 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.