Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Buy” by Analysts

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the six analysts that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy recommendation. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $165.67.

Several analysts have recently commented on the company. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 11th.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOG opened at $180.79 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $2.23 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.73, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.01. The business’s fifty day moving average is $172.10 and its 200 day moving average is $154.41. The company has a quick ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. Alphabet has a 12-month low of $115.83 and a 12-month high of $182.51.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.51 by $0.38. Alphabet had a net margin of 25.90% and a return on equity of 29.52%. The firm had revenue of $80.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $78.75 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.17 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 7.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a — dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 10th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 12.27%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.79, for a total transaction of $105,566.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,284 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,532,870.36. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.79, for a total transaction of $105,566.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,284 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,532,870.36. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 12,084 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.19, for a total value of $1,826,979.96. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 48,717 shares in the company, valued at $7,365,523.23. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 158,458 shares of company stock valued at $26,375,053. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Veracity Capital LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 12.4% during the 4th quarter. Veracity Capital LLC now owns 10,597 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,493,000 after buying an additional 1,173 shares in the last quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky increased its holdings in Alphabet by 25.3% during the 4th quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky now owns 6,093 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $859,000 after acquiring an additional 1,230 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 11.9% during the 1st quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 109,878 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $16,730,000 after acquiring an additional 11,646 shares during the period. Strategic Blueprint LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 36.7% in the 4th quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC now owns 15,068 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,123,000 after purchasing an additional 4,044 shares during the period. Finally, Investment Partners LTD. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 5.8% in the 4th quarter. Investment Partners LTD. now owns 7,446 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,049,000 after purchasing an additional 410 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.