Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Receives $200.56 Consensus Target Price from Brokerages

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-one analysts that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $200.56.

GOOG has been the topic of a number of research reports. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Scotiabank initiated coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, October 11th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 target price on the stock. DA Davidson upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Pivotal Research boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.6 %

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $166.57 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $169.10 and its 200-day moving average is $171.87. 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 $129.40 and a 52 week high of $193.31. The firm has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.55 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Alphabet will post 8.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 10.61%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total value of $3,975,075.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,061,806 shares in the company, valued at $364,259,266.02. This represents a 1.08 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.44, for a total transaction of $109,420.08. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 32,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,136,807.48. The trade was a 2.09 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 206,795 shares of company stock worth $34,673,866 in the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Swedbank AB bought a new position in Alphabet during the first quarter worth about $1,378,708,000. FMR LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 5.2% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 114,802,133 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,193,768,000 after purchasing an additional 5,655,022 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 10.3% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 33,334,082 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,573,125,000 after purchasing an additional 3,113,395 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in Alphabet by 65.9% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 6,294,332 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,052,349,000 after purchasing an additional 2,500,621 shares during the period. Finally, Vima LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 178,253.1% during the first quarter. Vima LLC now owns 2,001,122 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $304,691,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000,000 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.26% 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.