Barclays Boosts Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target to $200.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price objective hoisted by Barclays from $173.00 to $200.00 in a research report report published on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the information services provider’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on GOOGL. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. JMP Securities reiterated a market outperform rating and issued a $160.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $160.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Friday. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an outperform rating and issued a $185.00 price objective (up previously from $178.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Roth Mkm dropped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $166.00 to $164.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $189.44.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $166.15 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.15, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.07 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.48, a PEG ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.05. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $148.36 and its 200 day simple moving average is $141.62. Alphabet has a twelve month low of $103.71 and a twelve month high of $174.71.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.49 by $0.40. Alphabet had a net margin of 25.90% and a return on equity of 29.52%. The business had revenue of $80.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $66.04 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.17 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet will post 6.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 10th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 2,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.76, for a total transaction of $369,096.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,891 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,035,402.16. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $157.41, for a total value of $3,541,725.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,303,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $362,516,961.51. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 2,100 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.76, for a total transaction of $369,096.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 5,891 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,035,402.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 253,209 shares of company stock valued at $36,711,144 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Tributary Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the first quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Richardson Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 87.5% during the first quarter. Richardson Capital Management LLC now owns 300 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meritage Group LP lifted its stake in Alphabet by 1,061.5% during the third quarter. Meritage Group LP now owns 302 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 276 shares during 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.