Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Receives $210.88 Average Price Target from Analysts

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-five research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $203.94.

GOOG has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. UBS Group cut their target price on Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Benchmark reissued a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $163.85 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.00 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a 50 day moving average of $164.25 and a two-hundred day moving average of $177.16. Alphabet has a 52-week low of $142.66 and a 52-week high of $208.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.04 by $0.77. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The firm had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. As a group, analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.49%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,690 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.51, for a total transaction of $3,281,671.90. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 43,111 shares in the company, valued at $7,997,521.61. The trade was a 29.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,606,723.84. This represents a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 148,163 shares of company stock worth $25,361,647. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth $27,000. LSV Asset Management acquired a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 111.8% in the first quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 161 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at about $26,000. Finally, WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.