Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target Lowered to $189.00 at Rosenblatt Securities

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) had its price objective reduced by Rosenblatt Securities from $205.00 to $189.00 in a report issued on Friday, MarketBeat reports. Rosenblatt Securities currently has a neutral rating on the information services provider's stock.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on GOOGL. BMO Capital Markets restated an "outperform" rating and set a $200.00 price objective (down from $230.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $202.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Mizuho decreased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Wedbush set a $190.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $199.03.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL traded up $2.68 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $161.96. The company's stock had a trading volume of 55,957,898 shares, compared to its average volume of 28,290,487. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $162.18 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $175.52. The stock 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.

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

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.52%. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet's payout ratio is 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 transaction of $3,281,671.90. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly 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 filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 148,163 shares of company stock worth $25,361,647 over the last three months. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 3.1% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,283,594 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,871,384,000 after purchasing an additional 337,031 shares during the period. Passumpsic Savings Bank grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 38.0% in the 3rd quarter. Passumpsic Savings Bank now owns 4,700 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $779,000 after buying an additional 1,294 shares during the period. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. increased its position in Alphabet by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 37,379 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $6,199,000 after buying an additional 202 shares in the last quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 6.0% during the 3rd quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,306 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $382,000 after buying an additional 130 shares during the period. Finally, Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 19.2% in the third quarter. Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd now owns 137,669 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $22,703,000 after acquiring an additional 22,169 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently 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.