Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target Raised to $380.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price objective increased by Arete from $300.00 to $380.00 in a research report report published on Tuesday morning,MarketScreener reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the information services provider’s stock.

Several other research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $320.00 price objective (up from $245.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Citizens Jmp increased their price objective on Alphabet from $250.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 19th. Citic Securities lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $230.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $270.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $306.00 price target (up from $255.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have given a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $312.06.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.6%

Alphabet stock opened at $317.62 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $274.65 and its 200 day moving average price is $223.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.75. The company has a market cap of $3.83 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.07. Alphabet has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $328.83.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 35.00%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.28%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.66, for a total transaction of $32,401.32. Following the sale, the director directly owned 18,104 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,750,916.64. The trade was a 0.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $296.64, for a total value of $9,640,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,304,619 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $683,642,180.16. This trade represents a 1.39% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 193,628 shares of company stock valued at $50,942,622. 11.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 516,559,609 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $91,033,300,000 after buying an additional 6,733,278 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $40,524,841,000 after acquiring an additional 4,008,374 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 3.1% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 141,615,284 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $24,857,017,000 after purchasing an additional 4,224,497 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Alphabet in the second quarter valued at about $21,944,208,000. Finally, Capital World Investors grew its stake in Alphabet by 28.0% in the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,910,542,000 after purchasing an additional 11,605,785 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

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.