Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Given New $175.00 Price Target at Wells Fargo & Company

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price objective hoisted by Wells Fargo & Company from $167.00 to $175.00 in a report published on Friday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm currently has an equal weight rating on the information services provider’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also issued reports on GOOGL. Wedbush set a $190.00 target price on Alphabet and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $202.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $178.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Citizens Jmp cut shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $199.03.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.7 %

GOOGL opened at $161.96 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. The company has a market cap of $1.97 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.12, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. Alphabet has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $207.05. The business’s fifty day moving average is $162.18 and its two-hundred day moving average is $175.43.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.89 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.52%. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.94%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 29,066 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.89, for a total transaction of $5,374,012.74. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 272,466 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,376,238.74. This represents a 9.64 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total value of $104,537.09. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,377,014.99. This represents a 4.21 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 148,163 shares of company stock worth $25,361,647. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Heritage Investment Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 14.7% during the first quarter. Heritage Investment Group Inc. now owns 3,128 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $484,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the period. Alta Advisers Ltd boosted its position in Alphabet by 52.1% during the 1st quarter. Alta Advisers Ltd now owns 29,479 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,559,000 after acquiring an additional 10,100 shares during the period. Hixon Zuercher LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the first quarter. Hixon Zuercher LLC now owns 28,583 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,420,000 after purchasing an additional 371 shares in the last quarter. Sage Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 13.4% during the first quarter. Sage Advisors LLC now owns 1,868 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $289,000 after purchasing an additional 221 shares during the period. Finally, Unified Investment Management raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4.2% during the first quarter. Unified Investment Management now owns 5,481 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $848,000 after purchasing an additional 222 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently 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.