Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target Raised to $180.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price objective upped by Sanford C. Bernstein from $165.00 to $180.00 in a research report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. Sanford C. Bernstein currently has a market perform rating on the information services provider’s stock.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on GOOGL. Roth Mkm lowered their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $166.00 to $164.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $173.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Friday. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $168.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Friday. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $158.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $160.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Friday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $187.82.

Alphabet Stock Up 10.2 %

Alphabet stock opened at $171.95 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.10 and a quick ratio of 2.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.14 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.37, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.05. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $147.85 and its 200 day simple moving average is $141.39. Alphabet has a fifty-two week low of $103.54 and a fifty-two week high of $174.71.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. Alphabet had a net margin of 25.90% and a return on equity of 30.01%. The firm had revenue of $86.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $70.77 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.05 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 6.79 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared 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. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 12.27%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.29, for a total transaction of $3,291,525.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,377,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $347,832,416.39. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 2,100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.76, for a total transaction of $369,096.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 5,891 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,035,402.16. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.29, for a total value of $3,291,525.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,377,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $347,832,416.39. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 253,439 shares of company stock valued at $36,746,578. 0.88% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $15,441,917,000. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 227,317,469 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $29,746,764,000 after acquiring an additional 12,070,681 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 493,810,251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $68,980,354,000 after acquiring an additional 6,374,756 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 39,754.9% during the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 6,025,667 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $841,725,000 after acquiring an additional 6,010,548 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4,894.1% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 5,445,396 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,606,670,000 after acquiring an additional 5,336,359 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Company Profile

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.