Analysts Set Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Target Price at $201.35

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) has been given a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by the thirty-seven brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, twenty-eight have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $201.35.

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of research reports. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $204.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Roth Mkm reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $206.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Truist Financial restated a "buy" rating and issued a $196.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Loop Capital reiterated a "hold" rating and set a $170.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 3rd.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 682 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total value of $125,126.54. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 30,650 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,623,355.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total value of $125,126.54. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 30,650 shares in the company, valued at $5,623,355.50. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 700 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.00, for a total transaction of $115,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 27,824 shares in the company, valued at $4,590,960. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 180,867 shares of company stock valued at $29,878,106 in the last quarter. Insiders own 11.55% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 497,874,324 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $75,144,172,000 after purchasing an additional 4,064,073 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in Alphabet by 14.4% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 57,803,291 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $8,724,251,000 after buying an additional 7,275,757 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in Alphabet by 0.5% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 49,472,478 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $9,011,412,000 after buying an additional 238,403 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,178,075 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $6,310,925,000 after acquiring an additional 1,429,261 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.7% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 35,412,299 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $5,344,778,000 after acquiring an additional 597,756 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of GOOGL stock traded up $1.82 on Friday, hitting $164.55. The stock had a trading volume of 2,572,025 shares, compared to its average volume of 27,465,412. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 2.08. The business has a 50 day moving average of $163.11 and a 200 day moving average of $166.11. Alphabet has a 12-month low of $120.21 and a 12-month high of $191.75. The stock has a market cap of $2.03 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $70.60 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.44 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Alphabet will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 9th. Alphabet's payout ratio is 12.27%.

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.