Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price Expected to Rise, UBS Group Analyst Says

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) had its target price boosted by UBS Group from $173.00 to $186.00 in a report issued on Friday morning, MarketBeat reports. They currently have a neutral rating on the information services provider's stock.

Several other research analysts have also issued reports on GOOGL. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Alphabet from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. JMP Securities reiterated a "market perform" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities cut their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $205.00 to $189.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $199.03.

Alphabet Price Performance

Alphabet stock traded up $2.68 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $161.96. 55,957,898 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 28,290,487. The company has a market cap of $1.97 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.12, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $162.18 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $175.52. Alphabet has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a $0.21 dividend. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.52%. Alphabet's payout ratio is 9.94%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 1,340 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,606,723.84. The trade was a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares in the company, valued at $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 148,163 shares of company stock worth $25,361,647. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. FMR LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $47,025,322,000 after acquiring an additional 22,100,902 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Alphabet by 8.3% during the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 7,574,417 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in Alphabet by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $13,635,878,000 after purchasing an additional 10,037,685 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in Alphabet by 17.0% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $13,178,470,000 after buying an additional 10,135,430 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.