Morgan Stanley Raises Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target to $195.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its target price lifted by Morgan Stanley from $165.00 to $195.00 in a research note released on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the information services provider’s stock.

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Redburn Atlantic lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a research report on Friday. Susquehanna lifted their target price on Alphabet from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a positive rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price target on Alphabet from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Friday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $189.44.

Alphabet Trading Down 3.4 %

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $166.15 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $148.36 and its two-hundred day moving average is $141.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.07 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet has a 12 month low of $103.71 and a 12 month high of $174.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.15 and a quick ratio of 2.10.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by $0.40. The business had revenue of $80.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $66.04 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 29.52% and a net margin of 25.90%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.17 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Alphabet will post 6.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total transaction of $508,150.26. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 144,685 shares in the company, valued at $22,566,519.45. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total transaction of $508,150.26. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 144,685 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,566,519.45. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 2,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.76, for a total value of $369,096.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 5,891 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,035,402.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 253,209 shares of company stock worth $36,711,144 in the last 90 days. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Tributary Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet during the 1st quarter valued at about $30,000. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Richardson Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 87.5% during the first quarter. Richardson Capital Management LLC now owns 300 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 140 shares during the period. Finally, Meritage Group LP raised its holdings in Alphabet by 1,061.5% during the third quarter. Meritage Group LP now owns 302 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 276 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.