Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-two brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $200.56.

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Seaport Res Ptn raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Pivotal Research raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.23, for a total value of $473,929.82. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 26,349 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,406,343.27. This trade represents a 9.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.95, for a total value of $247,425.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 26,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,342,143.80. The trade was a 5.39 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 155,887 shares of company stock worth $27,996,356. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Graypoint LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Graypoint LLC now owns 55,182 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,509,000 after acquiring an additional 627 shares during the last quarter. Trinity Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 8.2% during the 4th quarter. Trinity Financial Advisors LLC now owns 5,446 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,038,000 after purchasing an additional 415 shares during the last quarter. Lowe Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 39.0% in the 4th quarter. Lowe Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 417 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $79,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. HBW Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. HBW Advisory Services LLC now owns 16,244 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,094,000 after buying an additional 136 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Praetorian Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $207,000. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOG stock opened at $193.17 on Friday. Alphabet has a 1 year low of $131.55 and a 1 year high of $202.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.36 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $184.12 and a 200-day simple moving average of $174.61.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.55 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.41%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.61%.

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.