Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-seven research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have given a hold recommendation, fourteen have given a buy recommendation and five have given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $203.94.

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. KeyCorp cut their target price on Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Tigress Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 2nd.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOG opened at $171.98 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $160.34 and a 200 day simple moving average of $176.63. Alphabet has a 52-week low of $142.66 and a 52-week high of $208.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.09 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.36, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The business had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.89 EPS. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,374 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.47, for a total value of $238,347.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,606,213.28. This represents a 8.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 112,054 shares of company stock valued at $17,722,605. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $5,166,070,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 1st quarter worth $2,622,943,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 18,562.3% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,323,323 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,237,733,000 after purchasing an additional 14,246,573 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $64,299,725,000 after purchasing an additional 9,687,855 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.9% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,971,861,000 after purchasing an additional 9,243,959 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.