Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target Raised to $200.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price objective increased by Robert W. Baird from $160.00 to $200.00 in a report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the information services provider’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on GOOGL. Barclays upped their target price on Alphabet from $173.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Friday. JMP Securities upped their target price on Alphabet from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a market outperform rating in a research report on Friday. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed 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. Citigroup upped their target price on Alphabet from $168.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Alphabet from $165.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Friday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $187.82.

Alphabet Trading Up 10.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $171.95 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.14 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.37, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.05. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $147.85 and a 200 day simple moving average of $141.39. Alphabet has a 52 week low of $103.54 and a 52 week high of $174.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a current ratio of 2.10.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $86.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $70.77 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.01% and a net margin of 25.90%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.05 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Alphabet will post 6.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.47%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 12.27%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total transaction of $508,150.26. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 144,685 shares in the company, valued at $22,566,519.45. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 230 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.06, for a total transaction of $35,433.80. Following the sale, the director now owns 15,104 shares in the company, valued at $2,326,922.24. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total value of $508,150.26. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 144,685 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,566,519.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 253,439 shares of company stock worth $36,746,578 over the last three months. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. M. Kraus & Co raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.1% during the first quarter. M. Kraus & Co now owns 6,267 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $946,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the period. Wynn Capital LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.9% during the first quarter. Wynn Capital LLC now owns 1,767 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $267,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the period. Aire Advisors LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Aire Advisors LLC now owns 11,772 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,645,000 after buying an additional 68 shares during the last quarter. Henrickson Nauta Wealth Advisors Inc. raised its position in Alphabet by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. Henrickson Nauta Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 3,274 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $511,000 after buying an additional 68 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Schmidt P J Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Alphabet by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Schmidt P J Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,350 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,109,000 after buying an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

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.