Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) have earned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the forty-two research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $205.90.

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of research reports. Pivotal Research lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $210.00 target price (up previously from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.2 %

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $175.98 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.15 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.03. Alphabet has a 12 month low of $127.90 and a 12 month high of $191.75. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $167.23 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $170.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $72.85 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.55 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Alphabet will post 7.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total transaction of $429,587.55. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,182 shares in the company, valued at $4,421,948.46. The trade was a 8.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 21,467 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.35, for a total value of $3,442,233.45. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 39,334 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,307,206.90. This represents a 35.31 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 184,295 shares of company stock worth $30,698,791 in the last ninety days. 11.55% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in 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 buying an additional 4,064,073 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in Alphabet by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 222,555,548 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $36,910,838,000 after buying an additional 743,369 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 134,030,679 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $22,154,651,000 after buying an additional 2,626,431 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 14.4% in 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 acquiring an additional 7,275,757 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 49,857,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,268,933,000 after purchasing an additional 1,237,385 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.