Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) have earned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-seven ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $204.88.

GOOG has been the subject of several analyst reports. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Needham & Company LLC cut shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “cautious” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Westpark Capital reissued a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. Finally, KeyCorp reduced their price target on shares of Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total value of $104,537.09. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,303 shares in the company, valued at $2,377,014.99. The trade was a 4.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total transaction of $1,962,705.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 49,037 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,181,333.08. This represents a 19.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 195,570 shares of company stock worth $32,003,532. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Sheets Smith Investment Management boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.6% in the first quarter. Sheets Smith Investment Management now owns 7,760 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,212,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares during the period. eCIO Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet during the first quarter worth about $426,000. Militia Capital Partners LP lifted its position in Alphabet by 300.0% during the first quarter. Militia Capital Partners LP now owns 42,000 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,562,000 after purchasing an additional 31,500 shares during the period. Invst LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 8.6% during the first quarter. Invst LLC now owns 11,924 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,863,000 after purchasing an additional 949 shares during the period. Finally, Hodges Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Alphabet by 6.9% during the first quarter. Hodges Capital Management Inc. now owns 13,940 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,178,000 after purchasing an additional 902 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $175.88 on Tuesday. Alphabet has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month high of $208.70. The company has a market capitalization of $2.13 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.85, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $164.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $176.34. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The firm had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.89 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

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.