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

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the forty-three brokerages that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $206.44.

GOOGL has been the topic of several recent research reports. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Truist Financial increased their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Bank of America reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, China Renaissance raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st.

Alphabet Price Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $191.79 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $180.24 and a 200-day moving average of $172.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.35 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. Alphabet has a 52 week low of $130.66 and a 52 week high of $201.42.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.55 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet will post 8.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.42%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.23, for a total value of $473,929.82. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 26,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,406,343.27. This represents a 9.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.95, for a total value of $247,425.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 26,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,342,143.80. This trade represents a 5.39 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 155,887 shares of company stock valued at $27,996,356. 11.55% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Schear Investment Advisers LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% in the third quarter. Schear Investment Advisers LLC now owns 33,751 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,598,000 after acquiring an additional 4,905 shares during the period. Trinity Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Trinity Financial Advisors LLC now owns 4,423 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $771,000 after purchasing an additional 190 shares in the last quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 27.9% in the 3rd quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. now owns 25,275 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,192,000 after purchasing an additional 5,516 shares during the period. abrdn plc increased its holdings in Alphabet by 10.7% in the 3rd quarter. abrdn plc now owns 6,305,717 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,037,196,000 after acquiring an additional 611,233 shares during the last quarter. Finally, StoneCrest Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. StoneCrest Wealth Management Inc. now owns 21,509 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,567,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.