Wells Fargo & Company Increases Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target to $168.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its target price increased by Wells Fargo & Company from $141.00 to $168.00 in a research report report published on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the information services provider’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $173.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Friday. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Friday. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $166.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an outperform rating and issued a $155.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Alphabet from $160.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Friday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $189.44.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $166.15 on Friday. Alphabet has a 52 week low of $103.71 and a 52 week high of $174.71. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $148.36 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $141.62. The company has a quick ratio of 2.10, a current ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The company has a market cap of $2.07 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.49 by $0.40. Alphabet had a return on equity of 29.52% and a net margin of 25.90%. The firm had revenue of $80.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $66.04 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.17 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 6.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 10th.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 2,100 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.76, for a total transaction of $369,096.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,891 shares in the company, valued at $1,035,402.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 2,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.76, for a total transaction of $369,096.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 5,891 shares in the company, valued at $1,035,402.16. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Ruth Porat sold 48,077 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.22, for a total value of $6,597,125.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 1,777,106 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $243,854,485.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 253,209 shares of company stock valued at $36,711,144 in the last ninety days. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $15,441,917,000. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 227,317,469 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $29,746,764,000 after buying an additional 12,070,681 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 493,810,251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $68,980,354,000 after buying an additional 6,374,756 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 39,754.9% in the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 6,025,667 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $841,725,000 after acquiring an additional 6,010,548 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 4,894.1% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 5,445,396 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,606,670,000 after acquiring an additional 5,336,359 shares in the last quarter. 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.