Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Receives $205.49 Average Price Target from Brokerages

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the forty-four analysts that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, twenty-nine have given a buy recommendation and five have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $200.74.

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $205.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. UBS Group set a $190.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. Wedbush set a $190.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 10th.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.5 %

GOOGL opened at $151.08 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $165.82 and its two-hundred day moving average is $175.88. The firm has a market cap of $1.84 trillion, a PE ratio of 18.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. Alphabet has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $207.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.94%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares in the company, valued at $3,606,723.84. The trade was a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.90, for a total transaction of $32,380.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 7,613 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,232,544.70. This trade represents a 2.56 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 115,663 shares of company stock valued at $20,286,447 over the last three months. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,283,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,871,384,000 after purchasing an additional 337,031 shares during the period. Voyager Global Management LP grew its stake in Alphabet by 55.9% in the 3rd quarter. Voyager Global Management LP now owns 2,650,000 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $439,502,000 after buying an additional 950,000 shares in the last quarter. Virtus Investment Advisers Inc. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 13.2% during the 3rd quarter. Virtus Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 4,960 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $823,000 after acquiring an additional 580 shares during the period. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 25.8% during the third quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 1,049,980 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $159,156,000 after acquiring an additional 215,469 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Insigneo Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.1% in the third quarter. Insigneo Advisory Services LLC now owns 96,319 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,975,000 after acquiring an additional 1,045 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.