Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target Increased to $200.00 by Analysts at JMP Securities

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its target price hoisted by JMP Securities from $160.00 to $200.00 in a research report report published on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. JMP Securities currently has a market outperform rating on the information services provider’s stock.

GOOGL has been the subject of several other research reports. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Friday. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $168.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Friday. KeyCorp increased 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. Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $160.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Roth Mkm reduced their target price on shares of Alphabet from $166.00 to $164.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $187.82.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOGL opened at $171.95 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.14 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a quick ratio of 2.10, a current ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $147.85 and a 200 day moving average of $141.39. Alphabet has a twelve month low of $103.54 and a twelve month high of $174.71.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $86.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $70.77 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 25.90% and a return on equity of 30.01%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.05 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 6.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 10th will be given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 12.27%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 2,100 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.76, for a total transaction of $369,096.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,891 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,035,402.16. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 2,100 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.76, for a total transaction of $369,096.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 5,891 shares in the company, valued at $1,035,402.16. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total transaction of $94,769.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 27,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,009,032.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 253,439 shares of company stock valued at $36,746,578. Insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Tributary Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet during the first quarter valued at $30,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $38,000. Meritage Group LP increased its stake in Alphabet by 1,061.5% during the third quarter. Meritage Group LP now owns 302 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 276 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Macroview Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 165.8% during the third quarter. Macroview Investment Management LLC now owns 319 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 199 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

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.