Brokerages Set Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Target Price at $203.32

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the forty-three research firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $211.32.

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $189.00 to $191.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $192.00 to $202.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $196.00 to $201.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Wedbush raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $217.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total value of $5,801,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,559,892 shares in the company, valued at $456,991,919.84. This trade represents a 1.25% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $3,448,820.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 243,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,213,984. This trade represents a 7.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 249,409 shares of company stock worth $43,523,710. 11.55% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $78,839,544,000 after purchasing an additional 14,307,345 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $47,025,322,000 after purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 8.3% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $18,672,198,000 after purchasing an additional 7,574,417 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 16.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,635,878,000 after purchasing an additional 10,037,685 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $192.58 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $2.34 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.51, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.00. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $176.29 and a 200 day moving average price of $172.79. 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 has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.