Wedbush Increases Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target to $205.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its target price hoisted by Wedbush from $175.00 to $205.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. Wedbush currently has an outperform rating on the information services provider’s stock. Wedbush also issued estimates for Alphabet’s Q2 2024 earnings at $1.85 EPS, Q3 2024 earnings at $1.78 EPS, Q4 2024 earnings at $1.96 EPS and FY2025 earnings at $8.25 EPS.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on GOOGL. Royal Bank of Canada restated an outperform rating and issued a $155.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on Alphabet from $165.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a research note on Friday. Mizuho upped their price objective on Alphabet from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Friday. BMO Capital Markets reissued an outperform rating and set a $185.00 target price (up previously from $178.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic boosted their target price on Alphabet from $150.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $189.44.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $166.15 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.15 and a quick ratio of 2.10. The company has a market cap of $2.07 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.05. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $148.36 and its two-hundred day moving average is $141.62. Alphabet has a 1-year low of $103.71 and a 1-year high of $174.71.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by $0.40. The business had revenue of $80.54 billion during 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 period in the previous year, the company posted $1.17 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 6.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 10th.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total value of $94,769.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,920 shares in the company, valued at $4,009,032.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total value of $94,769.40. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,920 shares in the company, valued at $4,009,032.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Ruth Porat sold 48,077 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.22, for a total value 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 approximately $243,854,485.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 253,209 shares of company stock valued at $36,711,144. Corporate insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $15,441,917,000. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 5.6% in 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 acquiring an additional 12,070,681 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position 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 worth $68,980,354,000 after acquiring an additional 6,374,756 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado grew its holdings in shares of 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 worth $841,725,000 after purchasing an additional 6,010,548 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC grew 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 purchasing an additional 5,336,359 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

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.