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

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the forty-three brokerages that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $206.82.

GOOGL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $190.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $232.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Scotiabank raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted 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.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.30, for a total value of $3,741,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,106,806 shares in the company, valued at $350,361,837.80. The trade was a 1.06 % decrease in their position. 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 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 26,349 shares in the company, valued at $4,406,343.27. This represents a 9.71 % 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 valued at $27,996,356. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Lantz Financial LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 10.8% in the 2nd quarter. Lantz Financial LLC now owns 4,622 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $842,000 after buying an additional 452 shares during the last quarter. Spectrum Wealth Advisory Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter worth approximately $218,000. Vance Wealth Inc. raised its stake in Alphabet by 4.0% in the 2nd quarter. Vance Wealth Inc. now owns 3,089 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $563,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. Detalus Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 10.5% in the 2nd quarter. Detalus Advisors LLC now owns 10,347 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,885,000 after purchasing an additional 981 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Beacon Financial Advisory LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 19.0% during the 2nd quarter. Beacon Financial Advisory LLC now owns 8,716 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,588,000 after purchasing an additional 1,391 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of GOOGL opened at $193.95 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The business has a fifty day moving average of $182.20 and a 200 day moving average of $173.01. The company has a market cap of $2.37 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.72, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.98. Alphabet has a 52-week low of $130.66 and a 52-week high of $201.42.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $72.85 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.55 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet will post 8.01 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.41%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 10.61%.

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.