Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target Cut to $229.00 by Analysts at Citigroup

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price objective cut by Citigroup from $232.00 to $229.00 in a report released on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the information services provider’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Scotiabank raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. China Renaissance raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Roth Mkm upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $206.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $210.62.

Alphabet Trading Down 3.3 %

GOOGL stock opened at $185.34 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Alphabet has a twelve month low of $130.66 and a twelve month high of $207.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.27 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.99. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $191.28 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $174.64.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 10.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,606,723.84. This trade represents a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total value of $3,975,075.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,061,806 shares in the company, valued at approximately $364,259,266.02. This trade represents a 1.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 89,529 shares of company stock valued at $16,600,078 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 43,005.6% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 18,743,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $31,086,250,000 after purchasing an additional 18,700,111 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 587.4% in the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 10,690,326 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,772,991,000 after acquiring an additional 9,135,056 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 20,990.0% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 6,186,748 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,171,151,000 after acquiring an additional 6,157,413 shares in the last quarter. Amundi lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 18.7% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 29,866,698 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,792,317,000 after acquiring an additional 4,694,621 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 116.4% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 8,670,225 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,437,957,000 after acquiring an additional 4,662,809 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.