Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target Increased to $200.00 by Analysts at Raymond James

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price target hoisted by Raymond James from $160.00 to $200.00 in a report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. Raymond James currently has an outperform rating on the information services provider’s stock.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on GOOGL. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an overweight rating and issued a $200.00 price objective (up from $160.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday. Redburn Atlantic increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Friday. Needham & Company LLC increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $160.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Truist Financial increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Friday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $187.82.

Alphabet Stock Up 10.2 %

GOOGL opened at $171.95 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $147.85 and a 200 day moving average of $141.39. The company has a market cap of $2.14 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet has a 12 month low of $103.54 and a 12 month high of $174.71. The company has a current ratio of 2.10, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $86.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $70.77 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 25.90% and a return on equity of 30.01%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.05 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet will post 6.79 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 10th will be given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 12.27%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total value of $94,769.40. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 27,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,009,032.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total value of $94,769.40. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 27,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,009,032.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 2,100 shares of the firm’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 completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 5,891 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,035,402.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 253,439 shares of company stock valued at $36,746,578 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 493,810,251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $68,980,354,000 after purchasing an additional 6,374,756 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 5.6% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 227,317,469 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $29,746,764,000 after acquiring an additional 12,070,681 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $15,441,917,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in Alphabet by 3.7% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 67,684,197 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,857,154,000 after acquiring an additional 2,416,328 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,220,857 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,316,902,000 after acquiring an additional 1,472,043 shares in the last quarter. 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.