Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target Raised to $200.00

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

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Friday. 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 report on Friday. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Friday. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Friday. Finally, JMP Securities upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a market outperform rating in a report on Friday. Five research 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 MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $187.82.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $171.95 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $147.85 and its 200-day moving average price is $141.39. Alphabet has a twelve month low of $103.54 and a twelve month high of $174.71. 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 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 (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $86.31 billion for 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 in the previous year, the firm posted $1.05 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 6.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company 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 dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 12.27%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 2,100 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The shares were 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 owns 5,891 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,035,402.16. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 2,100 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The shares were 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 owns 5,891 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,035,402.16. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 800 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.56, for a total transaction of $127,648.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 7,991 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,275,043.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 253,439 shares of company stock valued at $36,746,578 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $15,441,917,000. FMR LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 227,317,469 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $29,746,764,000 after purchasing an additional 12,070,681 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in 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. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado increased its stake in Alphabet by 39,754.9% during the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 6,025,667 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $841,725,000 after purchasing an additional 6,010,548 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 4,894.1% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 5,445,396 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,606,670,000 after purchasing an additional 5,336,359 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

About Alphabet

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.