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

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) had its price target increased by Oppenheimer from $185.00 to $200.00 in a research report sent to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the information services provider's stock.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on GOOG. Scotiabank lowered their target price on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Citigroup reissued a "sell" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday. Westpark Capital reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday. Finally, Citizens Jmp lowered Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $203.94.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of GOOG traded up $2.38 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $163.85. 35,100,087 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 19,311,734. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.00 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.04. Alphabet has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $208.70. The firm's fifty day moving average is $164.25 and its 200-day moving average is $177.25.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.04 by $0.77. The company had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th were given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.94%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at $430,917,877.76. The trade was a 1.18 % 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, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total value of $104,537.09. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,303 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,377,014.99. This represents a 4.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 148,163 shares of company stock worth $25,361,647 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 111.8% during the 1st quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 161 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 1st quarter worth approximately $26,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. LSV Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Finally, Goodman Advisory Group LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet during the first quarter worth approximately $32,000. 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.