Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Outperform Rating Reaffirmed at BMO Capital Markets

BMO Capital Markets reissued their outperform rating on shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in a research report released on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. BMO Capital Markets currently has a $217.00 price target on the information services provider’s stock, up from their previous price target of $215.00.

A number of other analysts also recently weighed in on GOOGL. Argus raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. TD Securities raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $196.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $240.00 price target for the company. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.51.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.1 %

GOOGL opened at $171.29 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.11 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.72, a P/E/G ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.03. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $162.43 and its 200-day moving average is $169.01. Alphabet has a 52-week low of $126.93 and a 52-week high of $191.75. The company has a quick ratio of 2.08, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.85 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.55 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Alphabet will post 7.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.61%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.44, for a total value of $109,420.08. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 32,017 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,136,807.48. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.44, for a total value of $109,420.08. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 32,017 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,136,807.48. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.75, for a total value of $123,000.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 28,524 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,385,565. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 230,244 shares of company stock worth $37,776,954. 11.55% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Alphabet by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 497,874,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $75,144,172,000 after acquiring an additional 4,064,073 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake 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 acquiring an additional 7,275,757 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in Alphabet by 0.5% during the 2nd 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 acquiring an additional 238,403 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its stake in Alphabet by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 35,412,299 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,344,778,000 after acquiring an additional 597,756 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in Alphabet by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 23,465,190 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,274,184,000 after acquiring an additional 418,204 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

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.