Alphabet’s (GOOGL) “Market Outperform” Rating Reaffirmed at JMP Securities

JMP Securities restated their market outperform rating on shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in a report published on Monday, Benzinga reports. JMP Securities currently has a $200.00 price target on the information services provider’s stock.

A number of other research analysts have also weighed in on the company. DA Davidson assumed coverage on Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. They set a neutral rating and a $170.00 target price for the company. Wedbush reaffirmed an outperform rating and set a $205.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Cantor Fitzgerald began coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. They issued a neutral rating and a $190.00 target price on the stock. TD Securities boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Mizuho increased their price objective on Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $201.08.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of GOOGL opened at $158.06 on Monday. Alphabet has a fifty-two week low of $120.21 and a fifty-two week high of $191.75. The business has a 50-day moving average of $166.84 and a 200 day moving average of $165.01. The firm has a market cap of $1.95 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a current ratio of 2.08.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $84.74 billion during 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 company earned $1.44 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 7.64 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.51%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 12.27%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total value of $5,570,188.20. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 312,210 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,765,346. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total value of $5,570,188.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 312,210 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,765,346. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total transaction of $429,587.55. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,182 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,421,948.46. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 180,167 shares of company stock valued at $30,139,931 over the last quarter. 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 modified their holdings of GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 497,874,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $75,144,172,000 after acquiring an additional 4,064,073 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $15,441,917,000. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 14.4% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 57,803,291 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,724,251,000 after purchasing an additional 7,275,757 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 49,472,478 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,011,412,000 after purchasing an additional 238,403 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,178,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,310,925,000 after buying an additional 1,429,261 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.