Mizuho Cuts Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target to $205.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) had its price objective trimmed by Mizuho from $230.00 to $205.00 in a report issued on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an outperform rating on the information services provider's stock.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $205.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $208.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Robert W. Baird reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $205.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Westpark Capital upgraded shares of Alphabet to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Ten research 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $206.51.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOGL traded up $4.32 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $157.14. 33,590,459 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 28,202,345. The company has a market cap of $1.92 trillion, a P/E ratio of 19.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. 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 company's 50-day moving average price is $168.52 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $176.22. Alphabet has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. On average, analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.51%. Alphabet's payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,690 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.51, for a total value of $3,281,671.90. Following the sale, the insider now owns 43,111 shares in the company, valued at $7,997,521.61. This represents a 29.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 1,340 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,606,723.84. This represents a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 119,797 shares of company stock valued at $21,089,470 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $24,383,677,000. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $47,025,322,000 after purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 16,993.2% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,483,898,000 after buying an additional 15,968,487 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in shares of 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 worth $13,635,878,000 after buying an additional 10,037,685 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.