Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Earns Outperform Rating from BMO Capital Markets

BMO Capital Markets restated their outperform rating on shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in a research note released on Monday, Benzinga reports. BMO Capital Markets currently has a $222.00 target price on the information services provider’s stock.

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Guggenheim boosted their price target on Alphabet from $195.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a buy rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, August 30th. UBS Group raised their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $204.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $206.00 to $200.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $176.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a strong-buy rating in a research report on Friday, May 24th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $201.08.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL stock opened at $159.81 on Monday. Alphabet has a twelve month low of $120.21 and a twelve month high of $191.75. The firm has a market cap of $1.97 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.51, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.04. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $165.62 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $165.13. The company has a quick ratio of 2.08, a current ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $70.60 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.44 EPS. Analysts predict that Alphabet will post 7.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 9th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.50%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 12.27%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total value of $125,126.54. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 30,650 shares in the company, valued at $5,623,355.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total transaction of $125,126.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 30,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,623,355.50. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total transaction of $5,570,188.20. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 312,210 shares in the company, valued at $50,765,346. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 180,167 shares of company stock valued at $29,762,606. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Gratus Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 17.1% during the 4th quarter. Gratus Capital LLC now owns 225,943 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $31,562,000 after acquiring an additional 33,039 shares during the period. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 7.0% in the fourth quarter. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. now owns 76,863 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,737,000 after purchasing an additional 5,057 shares during the period. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC now owns 48,300 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,747,000 after purchasing an additional 564 shares during the period. Partnership Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $80,000. Finally, King Wealth Management Group raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.0% during the 4th quarter. King Wealth Management Group now owns 49,758 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,951,000 after buying an additional 2,388 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.