Pivotal Research Issues Positive Forecast for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock Price

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) had its price objective raised by Pivotal Research from $215.00 to $225.00 in a research report report published on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a buy rating on the information services provider’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Scotiabank started coverage on Alphabet in a research note on Friday, October 11th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 target price on the stock. DA Davidson upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Alphabet from $204.00 to $187.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Oppenheimer dropped their target price on Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $200.56.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.0 %

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $172.65 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 2.08. Alphabet has a 1-year low of $128.11 and a 1-year high of $193.31. The company has a 50-day moving average of $163.81 and a 200 day moving average of $170.43. The firm has a market cap of $2.13 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.55 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 7.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.61%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total value of $429,587.55. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,182 shares in the company, valued at $4,421,948.46. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total value of $429,587.55. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,421,948.46. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.35, for a total value of $3,652,875.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,182,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $354,310,204.75. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 230,244 shares of company stock worth $37,776,954 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Cullinan Associates Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 8.4% during the first quarter. Cullinan Associates Inc. now owns 124,621 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $18,975,000 after purchasing an additional 9,612 shares during the last quarter. Westhampton Capital LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 23.9% during the 1st quarter. Westhampton Capital LLC now owns 4,040 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $615,000 after buying an additional 780 shares during the period. Deepwater Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 18.5% during the 1st quarter. Deepwater Asset Management LLC now owns 89,082 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,564,000 after buying an additional 13,927 shares during the period. Exchange Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.9% in the first quarter. Exchange Capital Management Inc. now owns 6,091 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $927,000 after acquiring an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Financial Strategies Group Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 22.8% in the first quarter. Financial Strategies Group Inc. now owns 43,876 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,939,000 after acquiring an additional 8,156 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

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.