Wedbush Has Positive Outlook for Alphabet FY2024 Earnings

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) – Equities researchers at Wedbush boosted their FY2024 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for Alphabet in a research report issued on Wednesday, October 30th. Wedbush analyst S. Devitt now expects that the information services provider will post earnings of $8.02 per share for the year, up from their previous forecast of $7.58. Wedbush has a “Outperform” rating and a $205.00 price target on the stock. The consensus estimate for Alphabet’s current full-year earnings is $7.65 per share. Wedbush also issued estimates for Alphabet’s Q4 2024 earnings at $2.13 EPS, Q1 2025 earnings at $2.03 EPS, Q2 2025 earnings at $2.15 EPS, Q3 2025 earnings at $2.26 EPS, Q4 2025 earnings at $2.45 EPS, FY2025 earnings at $8.89 EPS and FY2026 earnings at $9.85 EPS.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on GOOGL. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday. Bank of America upped their price target on Alphabet from $206.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Wolfe Research began coverage on Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $240.00 price target for the company. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.51.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL opened at $171.11 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 2.08. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $162.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $168.79. The firm has a market cap of $2.11 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.24, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.04. Alphabet has a 1 year low of $122.68 and a 1 year high of $191.75.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.55 earnings per share.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc lifted its position in Alphabet by 75.0% during the second quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 140 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Tributary Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at about $30,000. Kings Path Partners LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet during the second quarter worth approximately $36,000. Denver PWM LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the second quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Finally, CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 59.2% in the 1st quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. now owns 293 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 109 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.44, for a total value of $109,420.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 32,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,136,807.48. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.44, for a total value of $109,420.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 32,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,136,807.48. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.35, for a total value of $3,652,875.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,182,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $354,310,204.75. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 219,744 shares of company stock worth $35,878,764. 11.55% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 12.27%.

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.