Loop Capital Reiterates Hold Rating for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Loop Capital reissued their hold rating on shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. Loop Capital currently has a $170.00 price target on the information services provider’s stock.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Morgan Stanley restated an overweight rating and issued a $195.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Bank of America reiterated a buy rating and set a $200.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, June 11th. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 11th. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $193.66.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.3 %

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $185.82 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.15, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.30 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.50, a PEG ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.05. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $173.92 and a 200 day simple moving average of $155.17. Alphabet has a 12 month low of $115.35 and a 12 month high of $186.09.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by $0.40. Alphabet had a net margin of 25.90% and a return on equity of 29.52%. The company had revenue of $80.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $66.04 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.17 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Alphabet will post 7.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 10th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 12.27%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 800 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.56, for a total transaction of $127,648.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,991 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,275,043.96. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Alphabet news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total transaction of $600,175.38. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 9 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,655.91. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.56, for a total transaction of $127,648.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,991 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,275,043.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 123,788 shares of company stock valued at $21,143,403 over the last three months. 11.55% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 497,874,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $75,144,172,000 after acquiring an additional 4,064,073 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $15,441,917,000. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 14.4% during the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 57,803,291 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,724,251,000 after purchasing an additional 7,275,757 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,220,857 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,316,902,000 after purchasing an additional 1,472,043 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.7% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 35,412,299 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,344,778,000 after buying an additional 597,756 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.