Rosenblatt Securities Lowers Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) to Neutral

Rosenblatt Securities cut shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a report published on Friday morning, MarketBeat reports. They currently have $181.00 price target on the information services provider’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on GOOG. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an overweight rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $167.86.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $183.42 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $174.40 and its 200-day moving average is $155.53. Alphabet has a 12-month low of $115.83 and a 12-month high of $187.50. The company has a quick ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The firm has a market cap of $2.27 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.38. The company had revenue of $80.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $78.75 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 25.90% and a return on equity of 29.52%. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.17 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet will post 7.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a — dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 10th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 12.27%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.79, for a total value of $105,566.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,532,870.36. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.79, for a total value of $105,566.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,532,870.36. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.67, for a total transaction of $3,502,575.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,325,513 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $362,012,608.71. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 146,284 shares of company stock valued at $24,534,393. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $4,101,040,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in Alphabet by 19.7% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 84,171,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,815,986,000 after buying an additional 13,876,534 shares during the period. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 1st quarter valued at $1,378,708,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $11,600,970,000. Finally, Capital International Investors boosted its position in Alphabet by 9.3% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,716,562 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,355,724,000 after buying an additional 7,470,042 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

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.