Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target Increased to $220.00 by Analysts at Evercore ISI

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price target boosted by Evercore ISI from $160.00 to $220.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the information services provider’s stock.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Alphabet from $144.00 to $141.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Wolfe Research upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Friday. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $173.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Friday. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $166.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an outperform rating and set a $155.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $187.82.

Alphabet Trading Up 10.2 %

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $171.95 on Friday. Alphabet has a 52 week low of $103.54 and a 52 week high of $174.71. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $147.85 and a 200 day moving average of $141.39. The company has a quick ratio of 2.10, a current ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.14 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.37, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. Alphabet had a net margin of 25.90% and a return on equity of 30.01%. The company had revenue of $86.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $70.77 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.05 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 6.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 12.27%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total transaction of $508,150.26. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 144,685 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,566,519.45. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 230 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.06, for a total value of $35,433.80. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 15,104 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,326,922.24. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The stock was 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 directly owns 144,685 shares in the company, valued at $22,566,519.45. 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 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $15,441,917,000. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.6% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 227,317,469 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $29,746,764,000 after buying an additional 12,070,681 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 493,810,251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $68,980,354,000 after buying an additional 6,374,756 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 39,754.9% in the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 6,025,667 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $841,725,000 after buying an additional 6,010,548 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 4,894.1% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 5,445,396 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,606,670,000 after purchasing an additional 5,336,359 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.