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

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) have earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the forty-three research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, twenty-nine have given a buy recommendation and four have given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $210.62.

A number of analysts have recently commented on GOOGL shares. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Wedbush boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wolfe Research boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total value of $232,950.47. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 23,515 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,007,191.15. The trade was a 5.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total value of $6,870,532.68. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 282,832 shares in the company, valued at $52,329,576.64. This represents a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 134,299 shares of company stock worth $25,055,751. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Schear Investment Advisers LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 27.9% during 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 acquiring an additional 5,516 shares in the last quarter. abrdn plc raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 10.7% during the 3rd quarter. abrdn plc now owns 6,305,717 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,037,196,000 after acquiring an additional 611,233 shares in the last quarter. Olistico Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.1% during the 4th quarter. Olistico Wealth LLC now owns 8,981 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,700,000 after acquiring an additional 746 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Centaurus Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 22.9% during the 3rd quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 61,540 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,206,000 after acquiring an additional 11,481 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Down 2.7 %

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $179.66 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $192.46 and a 200 day moving average of $175.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a market cap of $2.19 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99. Alphabet has a twelve month low of $130.66 and a twelve month high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.45%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.94%.

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.