Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target Raised to $230.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price target lifted by Wolfe Research from $220.00 to $230.00 in a research note published on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the information services provider’s stock.

GOOGL has been the topic of several other research reports. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $210.00 price objective (up previously from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Robert W. Baird reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $205.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Scotiabank upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $206.44.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $191.79 on Friday. Alphabet has a one year low of $130.66 and a one year high of $201.42. The company’s 50-day moving average is $180.24 and its 200 day moving average is $172.46. The company has a market capitalization of $2.35 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.98. 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 (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.55 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet will post 8.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.42%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 10.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total transaction of $3,239,868.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 43,981 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,471,620.22. This trade represents a 27.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.23, for a total value of $473,929.82. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 26,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,406,343.27. This trade represents a 9.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 155,887 shares of company stock worth $27,996,356 over the last three months. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. LMR Partners LLP purchased a new position in Alphabet in the third quarter valued at about $32,000. Kings Path Partners LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet in the second quarter valued at about $36,000. Denver PWM LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet in the second quarter valued at about $41,000. Quarry LP purchased a new position in Alphabet in the second quarter valued at about $53,000. Finally, Legend Financial Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Alphabet by 280.0% in the second quarter. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 380 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $69,000 after purchasing an additional 280 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.