Wells Fargo & Company Issues Positive Forecast for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price target lifted by Wells Fargo & Company from $187.00 to $190.00 in a report published on Monday,Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the information services provider’s stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on GOOGL. China Renaissance upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Pivotal Research upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citizens Jmp downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $208.15.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $191.01 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.34 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.33, 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. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $183.05 and its 200 day moving average price is $172.99. Alphabet has a 1 year low of $130.66 and a 1 year high of $201.42.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.55 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Alphabet will post 8.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 10.61%.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.30, for a total value of $3,741,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,106,806 shares in the company, valued at approximately $350,361,837.80. This trade represents a 1.06 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.80, for a total value of $284,700.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 21,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,142,195.20. This represents a 6.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 153,053 shares of company stock valued at $27,559,701 in the last ninety days. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Johnson & White Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 4.8% during the fourth quarter. Johnson & White Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,467 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $657,000 after buying an additional 160 shares in the last quarter. Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN now owns 2,591 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $490,000 after acquiring an additional 81 shares during the period. Columbia Advisory Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $278,000. Code Waechter LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 6.1% in the 4th quarter. Code Waechter LLC now owns 3,691 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $699,000 after acquiring an additional 211 shares during the period. Finally, Shorepath Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $4,834,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

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.