Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Given New $215.00 Price Target at Jefferies Financial Group

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price target increased by Jefferies Financial Group from $200.00 to $215.00 in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. Jefferies Financial Group currently has a buy rating on the information services provider’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also commented on GOOGL. Wedbush lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $175.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Bank of America restated a buy rating and set a $200.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, June 11th. Morgan Stanley restated an overweight rating and set a $195.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. TD Cowen raised their target price on Alphabet from $170.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their target price on Alphabet from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $193.69.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $183.88 on Wednesday. Alphabet has a twelve month low of $115.35 and a twelve month high of $184.51. The firm has a market cap of $2.27 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a current ratio of 2.15. The business has a fifty day moving average of $171.13 and a 200-day moving average of $153.36.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by $0.40. Alphabet had a return on equity of 29.52% and a net margin of 25.90%. The company had revenue of $80.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $66.04 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.17 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet will post 7.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 10th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 12.27%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.40, for a total transaction of $3,991,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,213,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $392,588,151.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,532,870.36. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.40, for a total value of $3,991,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,213,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $392,588,151.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 146,284 shares of company stock valued at $24,534,393 in the last 90 days. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $15,441,917,000. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 14.4% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 57,803,291 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,724,251,000 after acquiring an additional 7,275,757 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position 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 valued at $68,980,354,000 after acquiring an additional 6,374,756 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado lifted its position 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 valued at $841,725,000 after acquiring an additional 6,010,548 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position 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 valued at $7,606,670,000 after acquiring an additional 5,336,359 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.