Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Receives New Coverage from Analysts at Scotiabank

Scotiabank initiated coverage on shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) in a report published on Friday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The firm issued a sector outperform rating and a $212.00 price target on the information services provider’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also issued reports on GOOG. Oppenheimer lowered their target price on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. DA Davidson raised Alphabet to a hold rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Rosenblatt Securities downgraded shares of Alphabet from a buy rating to a neutral rating and set a $181.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Finally, Pivotal Research started coverage on Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. They set a buy rating and a $215.00 price objective for the company. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $186.90.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOG opened at $164.52 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.03 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.60, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.04. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $162.81 and its 200-day simple moving average is $169.13. Alphabet has a twelve month low of $121.46 and a twelve month high of $193.31. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) 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 analysts’ expectations of $84.22 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. The firm’s revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.44 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 7.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 9th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 11.48%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total transaction of $5,570,188.20. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 312,210 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,765,346. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $182.84, for a total transaction of $4,113,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,204,885 shares in the company, valued at approximately $403,141,173.40. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the firm’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 transaction of $5,570,188.20. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 312,210 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,765,346. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 216,092 shares of company stock valued at $35,644,136 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted 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 during the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the first quarter valued at approximately $1,378,708,000. Capital International Investors lifted its stake in Alphabet by 9.3% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,716,562 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,355,724,000 after acquiring an additional 7,470,042 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in 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 last quarter. Finally, Vima LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 178,253.1% in the first quarter. Vima LLC now owns 2,001,122 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $304,691,000 after acquiring an additional 2,000,000 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.