Oppenheimer Trims Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Target Price to $185.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) had its target price decreased by Oppenheimer from $210.00 to $185.00 in a research note released on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the information services provider’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also weighed in on GOOG. DA Davidson raised Alphabet to a hold rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Wolfe Research raised Alphabet to a strong-buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. TD Cowen lifted their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Alphabet to a hold rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities downgraded Alphabet from a buy rating to a neutral rating and set a $181.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Friday, June 28th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $179.29.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $165.29 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.08, a current ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $164.62 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $167.59. The firm has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.04. Alphabet has a twelve month low of $121.46 and a twelve month high of $193.31.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.22 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. Alphabet’s revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.44 EPS. Analysts expect that Alphabet will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 12.27%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total transaction of $429,587.55. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,182 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,421,948.46. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of the business’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 sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,182 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,421,948.46. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $186.74, for a total value of $4,201,650.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,227,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $415,941,874.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 203,367 shares of company stock worth $34,079,756 in the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,985 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,465,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the period. PCG Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% in the 2nd quarter. PCG Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,880 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $345,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the period. Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV now owns 3,636 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $667,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the period. Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV now owns 2,944 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $540,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. Finally, Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 11.1% in the 1st quarter. Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC now owns 600 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $91,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.