Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target Raised to $225.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its target price boosted by Stifel Nicolaus from $200.00 to $225.00 in a research report sent to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the information services provider’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on GOOGL. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $190.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. Scotiabank raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Alphabet from $190.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $208.15.

Alphabet Stock Up 3.1 %

Alphabet stock opened at $195.55 on Monday. Alphabet has a fifty-two week low of $130.66 and a fifty-two week high of $201.42. The company has a market cap of $2.39 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.94, a PEG ratio of 1.22 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. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $183.45 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $173.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued 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 company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.85 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.55 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 8.03 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.41%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 10.61%.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total transaction of $75,437.46. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 16,490 shares in the company, valued at $2,820,779.40. This trade represents a 2.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.36, for a total transaction of $3,990,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,084,306 shares in the company, valued at $369,672,512.16. This trade represents a 1.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 133,387 shares of company stock valued at $24,368,654 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Conrad Siegel Investment Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Conrad Siegel Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 9,845 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,864,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Denver PWM LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 25.4% during the 3rd quarter. Denver PWM LLC now owns 281 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the period. Ignite Planners LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Ignite Planners LLC now owns 15,078 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,892,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Fermata Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Fermata Advisors LLC now owns 7,433 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,407,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the period. Finally, Winch Advisory Services LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Winch Advisory Services LLC now owns 4,386 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $830,000 after buying an additional 58 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.