Wedbush Has Bullish Estimate for Alphabet FY2024 Earnings

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) – Equities researchers at Wedbush upped their FY2024 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for shares of Alphabet in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, October 30th. Wedbush analyst S. Devitt now forecasts that the information services provider will post earnings of $8.02 per share for the year, up from their previous forecast of $7.58. The consensus estimate for Alphabet’s current full-year earnings is $7.64 per share. Wedbush also issued estimates for Alphabet’s Q4 2024 earnings at $2.13 EPS, Q1 2025 earnings at $2.03 EPS, Q2 2025 earnings at $2.15 EPS, Q3 2025 earnings at $2.26 EPS, Q4 2025 earnings at $2.45 EPS, FY2025 earnings at $8.89 EPS and FY2026 earnings at $9.85 EPS.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on GOOG. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. UBS Group raised their price objective on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $200.56.

Alphabet Stock Down 2.0 %

GOOG stock opened at $172.69 on Thursday. Alphabet has a one year low of $123.93 and a one year high of $193.31. The firm has a market cap of $2.13 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.49, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.04. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $163.71 and its 200-day moving average price is $170.32. 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:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.55 earnings per share. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.46%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 12.27%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.35, for a total transaction of $3,652,875.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,182,385 shares in the company, valued at $354,310,204.75. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.35, for a total transaction of $3,652,875.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,182,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $354,310,204.75. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.44, for a total value of $109,420.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 32,017 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,136,807.48. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 219,744 shares of company stock valued at $35,878,764 over the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of GOOG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 19.7% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 84,171,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,815,986,000 after acquiring an additional 13,876,534 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at about $1,378,708,000. Capital International Investors increased its position in Alphabet by 9.3% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,716,562 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,355,724,000 after buying an additional 7,470,042 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 65.9% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 6,294,332 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,052,349,000 after buying an additional 2,500,621 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 51.8% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 6,416,150 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $976,923,000 after acquiring an additional 2,190,795 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

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.