Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Receives Average Rating of “Buy” from Analysts

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has received an average rating of “Buy” from the thirty-six research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, twenty-seven have issued a buy recommendation and five have given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $383.4375.

GOOG has been the topic of several recent research reports. Phillip Securities cut shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $450.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $450.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. Stifel Nicolaus set a $420.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 7th.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America and Wedbush remain bullish, with both highlighting strong cloud growth, AI monetization potential, and upside to the stock ahead of earnings. Alphabet could crush estimates on Cloud strength, Anthropic windfall: BofA
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and investors are still pointing to accelerating Google Search and Google Cloud growth, while retail interest and institutional ownership remain strong ahead of the July 22 report.
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s AI and cloud businesses remain central to the bullish thesis, with multiple articles noting that the company could benefit from rising AI infrastructure spend and strong earnings expectations.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $351.28, for a total value of $39,343.36. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 18,833 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,615,656.24. This trade represents a 0.59% 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, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $368.63, for a total value of $387,061.50. Following the transaction, the director owned 1,481 shares in the company, valued at approximately $545,941.03. The trade was a 41.49% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 159,415 shares of company stock valued at $7,672,279. 12.99% 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 company. Auto Owners Insurance Co boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 38,409.2% during the 4th quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 179,836,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,643,262,000 after acquiring an additional 179,369,280 shares during the period. J. Stern & Co. LLP boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 28,482.8% in the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 112,091,870 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $35,174,429,000 after purchasing an additional 111,699,704 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $18,093,665,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 850.3% in the fourth quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 17,692,600 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,551,938,000 after purchasing an additional 15,830,754 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 421,013,782 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $132,114,125,000 after buying an additional 8,128,234 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $346.12 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $4.19 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.23. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $366.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $336.81. Alphabet has a 1-year low of $184.73 and a 1-year high of $404.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 1.92.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The information services provider reported $5.11 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $2.43. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%.The firm had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $106.96 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.81 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 14.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 8th were given a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 6.71%.

About Alphabet

Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) is a multinational technology holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Formed in 2015 through a corporate restructuring of Google, Alphabet serves as the parent to Google LLC and a portfolio of businesses collectively known as “Other Bets.” Google was originally founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Alphabet is led by CEO Sundar Pichai, who oversees Google and the broader company while the founders remain prominent shareholders and influential figures in the company’s history.

Alphabet’s core business centers on internet search and advertising, with Google Search and the company’s ad platforms (including Google Ads and AdSense) generating the majority of revenue by connecting advertisers with consumers worldwide.