Robert W. Baird Increases Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target to $200.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price objective hoisted by Robert W. Baird from $160.00 to $200.00 in a research note published on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the information services provider’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on GOOGL. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Alphabet from $160.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Friday. Redburn Atlantic boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Needham & Company LLC increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $160.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Friday. Barclays lifted 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. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price objective 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. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $189.44.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $166.15 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a current ratio of 2.15. Alphabet has a 52 week low of $103.71 and a 52 week high of $174.71. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $148.36 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $141.62. The company has a market capitalization of $2.07 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.49 by $0.40. The firm had revenue of $80.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 business posted $1.17 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Alphabet will post 6.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CFO Ruth Porat sold 48,077 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.22, for a total transaction of $6,597,125.94. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 1,777,106 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $243,854,485.32. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Ruth Porat sold 48,077 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.22, for a total transaction of $6,597,125.94. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 1,777,106 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $243,854,485.32. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 2,100 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.76, for a total value of $369,096.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly 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 valued at $36,711,144 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $15,441,917,000. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 5.6% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 227,317,469 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $29,746,764,000 after purchasing an additional 12,070,681 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in 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 shares of Alphabet by 39,754.9% in 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 during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of 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 worth $7,606,670,000 after buying an additional 5,336,359 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.