Wells Fargo & Company Boosts Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target to $190.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price objective hoisted by Wells Fargo & Company from $187.00 to $190.00 in a report released on Wednesday morning, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the information services provider’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on GOOGL. Raymond James boosted their target price on Alphabet from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Loop Capital restated a hold rating and issued a $170.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Tigress Financial lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $176.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a strong-buy rating in a research report on Friday, May 24th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a neutral rating and issued a $181.00 price target (down previously from $182.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, June 28th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus restated a buy rating and set a $196.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, May 15th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $203.74.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.2 %

GOOGL opened at $167.00 on Wednesday. Alphabet has a 12 month low of $120.21 and a 12 month high of $191.75. The company has a market cap of $2.06 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The company has a 50 day moving average of $179.04 and a 200 day moving average of $160.35.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. The firm had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $70.60 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.44 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 12.27%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.85, for a total transaction of $278,775.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 30,824 shares in the company, valued at $5,728,640.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.85, for a total transaction of $278,775.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 30,824 shares in the company, valued at $5,728,640.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.80, for a total value of $3,753,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,280,511 shares in the company, valued at $380,389,234.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 122,388 shares of company stock worth $21,497,609. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $15,441,917,000. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 14.4% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 57,803,291 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,724,251,000 after purchasing an additional 7,275,757 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% during the fourth 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 holdings in Alphabet by 39,754.9% during the fourth 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 buying an additional 6,010,548 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 4,894.1% in 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 buying an additional 5,336,359 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently 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.