Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) have been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the forty-three analysts that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, twenty-nine have issued a buy recommendation and four have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $210.59.

A number of analysts recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $205.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, DZ Bank cut Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $198.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Thursday, February 6th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total value of $33,106.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 7,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. This trade represents a 2.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,368 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.55, for a total value of $262,040.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 20,681 shares in the company, valued at $3,961,445.55. The trade was a 6.20 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 93,048 shares of company stock valued at $17,374,274. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $24,383,677,000. FMR LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $47,025,322,000 after purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Alphabet by 17.0% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,178,470,000 after purchasing an additional 10,135,430 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in Alphabet by 16.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,635,878,000 after purchasing an additional 10,037,685 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Alphabet by 15.9% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 66,050,135 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,503,291,000 after purchasing an additional 9,042,271 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $162.80 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1.98 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02. 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 has a 52-week low of $146.90 and a 52-week high of $207.05. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $183.13 and a 200 day moving average price of $176.37.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

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.