Alphabet’s (GOOGL) “Overweight” Rating Reaffirmed at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler restated their overweight rating on shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in a report published on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. Piper Sandler currently has a $200.00 price target on the information services provider’s stock, up from their prior price target of $160.00.

GOOGL has been the subject of several other reports. Redburn Atlantic raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Wedbush raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $175.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Friday. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $173.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Friday. BMO Capital Markets reissued an outperform rating and issued a $185.00 target price (up from $178.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $166.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $189.44.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOGL opened at $166.15 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.07 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.48, a P/E/G ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet has a twelve month low of $103.71 and a twelve month high of $174.71. The company has a 50 day moving average of $148.36 and a 200-day moving average of $141.62. The company has a quick ratio of 2.10, a current ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.49 by $0.40. The company had revenue of $80.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $66.04 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 25.90% and a return on equity of 29.52%. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.17 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 6.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 10th.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 2,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.76, for a total value of $369,096.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 5,891 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,035,402.16. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 2,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.76, for a total value of $369,096.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 5,891 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,035,402.16. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.56, for a total value of $127,648.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 7,991 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,275,043.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 253,209 shares of company stock valued at $36,711,144 over the last quarter. 0.88% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Tributary Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the first quarter valued at about $30,000. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $38,000. Richardson Capital Management LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 87.5% in the first quarter. Richardson Capital Management LLC now owns 300 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 140 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meritage Group LP grew its position in Alphabet by 1,061.5% in the third quarter. Meritage Group LP now owns 302 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 276 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% 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.