Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Cut to Hold at Citizens Jmp

Citizens Jmp cut shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a report released on Thursday morning,Zacks.com reports.

GOOGL has been the topic of several other research reports. Loop Capital upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Scotiabank raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, China Renaissance raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $206.69.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOGL opened at $189.43 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $179.17 and a two-hundred day moving average of $172.28. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Alphabet has a twelve month low of $130.66 and a twelve month high of $201.42. The company has a market cap of $2.32 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $72.85 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.55 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Alphabet will post 8.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.42%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 10.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total transaction of $3,239,868.40. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 43,981 shares in the company, valued at $8,471,620.22. The trade was a 27.66 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.95, for a total value of $247,425.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 26,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,342,143.80. This represents a 5.39 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 154,519 shares of company stock valued at $27,734,316 over the last quarter. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. LMR Partners LLP acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at about $32,000. Kings Path Partners LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet during the second quarter worth about $36,000. Denver PWM LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at about $41,000. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $53,000. Finally, Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $66,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.