Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirty-one research firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have given a hold recommendation, nineteen have given a buy recommendation and four have given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $230.3529.

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. Scotiabank lifted their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $210.00 price objective (up from $185.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. KeyCorp set a $265.00 target price on Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. BNP Paribas cut shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, Lake Street Capital reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $245.00, for a total transaction of $680,610.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 17,293 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,236,785. This represents a 13.84% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $229.73, for a total value of $7,466,225.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,429,892 shares in the company, valued at approximately $558,219,089.16. This represents a 1.32% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 258,088 shares of company stock worth $52,405,304 in the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Caldwell Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at about $3,434,000. Canal Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 6.1% in the second quarter. Canal Capital Management LLC now owns 8,282 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,469,000 after buying an additional 478 shares in the last quarter. Milestones Private Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the second quarter worth $214,000. WT Wealth Management lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 3.9% during the second quarter. WT Wealth Management now owns 42,267 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,498,000 after buying an additional 1,578 shares during the period. Finally, NWF Advisory Services Inc. boosted its position in Alphabet by 3.4% during the 2nd quarter. NWF Advisory Services Inc. now owns 81,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $14,416,000 after acquiring an additional 2,682 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $252.88 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $3.06 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.93, a PEG ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $256.70. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $211.48 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $182.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.67 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 8.95%.

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.