Cantor Fitzgerald Forecasts Higher Earnings for Alphabet

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) – Equities research analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald raised their FY2024 earnings per share estimates for Alphabet in a report issued on Tuesday, January 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald analyst D. Mathivanan now expects that the information services provider will post earnings per share of $8.06 for the year, up from their previous estimate of $7.96. Cantor Fitzgerald currently has a “Neutral” rating and a $190.00 target price on the stock. The consensus estimate for Alphabet’s current full-year earnings is $8.01 per share.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on GOOGL. Loop Capital boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. 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 report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Bank of America reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, JMP Securities lowered Alphabet from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $220.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have issued a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $206.82.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.8 %

Alphabet stock opened at $193.95 on Wednesday. Alphabet has a fifty-two week low of $130.66 and a fifty-two week high of $201.42. The company has a market cap of $2.37 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.72, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $182.20 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $173.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.55 earnings per share.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, October 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.95, for a total value of $247,425.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 26,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,342,143.80. The trade was a 5.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.23, for a total transaction of $473,929.82. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 26,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,406,343.27. The trade was a 9.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 155,887 shares of company stock valued at $27,996,356. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 43,005.6% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 18,743,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $31,086,250,000 after purchasing an additional 18,700,111 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 587.4% during the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 10,690,326 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,772,991,000 after purchasing an additional 9,135,056 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 116.4% in the 3rd 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 buying an additional 4,662,809 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 7.7% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,559,240,000 after acquiring an additional 4,567,275 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wulff Hansen & CO. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 18,810.2% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,434,260 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $807,700,000 after purchasing an additional 4,410,811 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently 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.