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

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Buy” from the fifty-four research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, forty-four have issued a buy recommendation and six have given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $419.8610.

A number of research analysts have commented on the stock. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $379.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Citigroup reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Truist Financial set a $420.00 target price on Alphabet and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Phillip Securities upgraded Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 1st.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud revenue reportedly increased 82% in the second quarter, with backlog reaching $514 billion, while the Gemini app reached approximately 950 million monthly active users. The results reinforce the commercial demand supporting Alphabet’s AI and cloud investments. Google’s AI business is booming, so why are DeepMind’s biggest names quitting?
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and investors continue to highlight Alphabet’s strong cash generation, balance sheet and valuation relative to its growth prospects. Some market models see the shares reaching $400 as Cloud momentum and AI monetization continue. Price Prediction: Google Will Hit $400 on This Date
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s expanded Google Cloud partnership with AI lab Mirendil, reportedly worth more than $100 million over multiple years, provides another example of demand for its computing infrastructure. Mirendil Google Cloud deal

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $354.30 on Monday. Alphabet has a 52-week low of $196.60 and a 52-week high of $408.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.33 trillion, a PE ratio of 17.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.72 and a quick ratio of 2.64. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $355.68 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $340.49.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $6.22. The business had revenue of $119.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $117.07 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 54.77% and a return on equity of 51.32%. On average, analysts expect that Alphabet will post 20.51 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 4.42%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 82 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $333.39, for a total value of $27,337.98. Following the sale, the director owned 18,914 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,305,738.46. This represents a 0.43% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,998 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.29, for a total transaction of $3,142,911.42. Following the sale, the insider owned 75,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,298,044.10. This trade represents a 10.68% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 600,547 shares of company stock worth $16,255,540 over the last 90 days. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Oxbow Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.7% during the second quarter. Oxbow Advisors LLC now owns 6,498 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,322,000 after buying an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 3.3% during the 2nd quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 874,716 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $312,597,000 after acquiring an additional 28,048 shares during the last quarter. Global Strategic Investment Solutions LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 6.9% during the 2nd quarter. Global Strategic Investment Solutions LLC now owns 7,961 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,845,000 after acquiring an additional 514 shares during the last quarter. Foster & Motley Inc. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Foster & Motley Inc. now owns 10,841 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,874,000 after purchasing an additional 137 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cypress Asset Management Inc. TX increased its holdings in Alphabet by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Cypress Asset Management Inc. TX now owns 7,742 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,767,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc is the holding company created in 2015 to organize Google and a portfolio of businesses developing technologies beyond Google’s core internet services. Its principal operations are led by Google, which builds and operates consumer-facing products such as Google Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Workspace, as well as advertising platforms (Google Ads and AdSense) that historically generate the majority of its revenue. Google also develops consumer hardware (Pixel phones, Nest smart-home devices, Chromecast) and developer and distribution platforms such as Google Play.

Beyond Google’s consumer and advertising businesses, Alphabet invests in enterprise and infrastructure offerings through Google Cloud, which provides cloud computing, data analytics and productivity services to businesses and institutions.