Wedbush Comments on Alphabet’s FY2024 Earnings (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) – Stock analysts at Wedbush boosted their FY2024 EPS estimates for shares of Alphabet in a research report issued to clients and investors 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. The consensus estimate for Alphabet’s current full-year earnings is $7.83 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.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on GOOG. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $200.56.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.0 %

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $172.65 on Thursday. Alphabet has a 52 week low of $128.11 and a 52 week high of $193.31. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $163.81 and a 200 day moving average of $170.43. The company has a quick ratio of 2.08, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.13 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.90, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.39 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.55 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Capital International Investors increased its position in Alphabet by 9.3% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,716,562 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,355,724,000 after purchasing an additional 7,470,042 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Alphabet by 19.7% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 84,171,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,815,986,000 after purchasing an additional 13,876,534 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its position in Alphabet by 2.2% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 45,731,826 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,963,128,000 after purchasing an additional 979,083 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% during the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 35,558,778 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,414,179,000 after acquiring an additional 684,968 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 14,657,421 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,688,743,000 after acquiring an additional 636,008 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total transaction of $5,570,188.20. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 312,210 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,765,346. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.35, for a total value of $3,652,875.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,182,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $354,310,204.75. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total transaction of $5,570,188.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 312,210 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,765,346. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 230,244 shares of company stock valued at $37,776,954 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 10.61%.

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.