Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Receives Average Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Analysts

Key Points

• Alphabet received an average analyst rating of “Moderate Buy” from 54 covering analysts, with 47 buy ratings and an average 12-month price target of about $413.13.
• Recent company news was upbeat, including Wing expanding its Walmart drone-delivery partnership into seven more U.S. cities and Waymo launching a $29.99 monthly membership plan to build recurring revenue.
• Alphabet also reported strong quarterly results, beating EPS and revenue expectations, and recently raised its quarterly dividend to $0.22 per share from $0.21.

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) have been given an average rating of "Moderate Buy" by the fifty-four analysts that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $413.1329.

A number of research firms have commented on GOOGL. Rosenblatt Securities restated a "neutral" rating and set a $393.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. Dbs Bank increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $460.00 in a report on Thursday, May 7th. KeyCorp reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $425.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Daiwa Securities Group increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $380.00 to $445.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $330.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $393.26, for a total transaction of $412,923.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 2,531 shares of the company's stock, valued at $995,341.06. This trade represents a 29.32% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $381.00, for a total transaction of $38,862.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 18,721 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,132,701. This trade represents a 0.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 193,016 shares of company stock worth $17,282,549. Insiders own 11.61% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. EMC Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $33,000. PMV Capital Advisers LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $38,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $38,000. Finally, Bard Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $52,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s drone unit Wing expanded its Walmart partnership into seven more U.S. cities, pushing the service toward nearly 20 markets and signaling that drone delivery is moving from experiment to scalable business. Alphabet's Most Overlooked Division Just Had a Big Week
• Positive Sentiment: Waymo launched a new $29.99 monthly membership program with perks for frequent riders, a move that suggests the robotaxi business is building recurring revenue on top of rapid ride-growth. Waymo launches premier subscription tier for $29.99 a month, starting in select cities
• Positive Sentiment: TD Cowen raised its price target on Alphabet, adding to the bullish analyst backdrop and supporting the view that the stock still has room to run. Alphabet (GOOGL) Among Our Good Stocks to Buy Now
• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America and other commentary highlighted Alphabet as a long-term AI beneficiary, especially as rising model costs could strengthen demand for Google Cloud and infrastructure. Anthropic's Priciest AI Model Yet Is Here. Why Alphabet and Amazon Will Benefit.
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet sued an alleged Chinese cybercrime group accused of using Google’s AI tools to run scam operations, which shows the company is actively defending its platform but is not likely to move the stock much on its own. Google sues alleged Chinese cybercrime operation that used AI to send scam texts
• Neutral Sentiment: Some investors noted that Altimeter Capital fully exited its Alphabet stake in Q1, but this appears more like portfolio repositioning than a company-specific warning. Billionaire Brad Gerstner Dumped All of His Alphabet Then Bought 2 Stocks Nobody Expected

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $359.68 on Friday. Alphabet has a 12 month low of $162.00 and a 12 month high of $408.61. The stock has a market cap of $4.36 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.44, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.23. The company's 50 day moving average is $360.45 and its two-hundred day moving average is $330.26. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.64 by $2.47. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. The company had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $106.98 billion. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 14.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 8th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. Alphabet's payout ratio is 6.71%.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc is the holding company created in 2015 to organize Google and a portfolio of businesses developing technologies beyond Google's core internet services. Its principal operations are led by Google, which builds and operates consumer-facing products such as Google Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Workspace, as well as advertising platforms (Google Ads and AdSense) that historically generate the majority of its revenue. Google also develops consumer hardware (Pixel phones, Nest smart-home devices, Chromecast) and developer and distribution platforms such as Google Play.

Beyond Google's consumer and advertising businesses, Alphabet invests in enterprise and infrastructure offerings through Google Cloud, which provides cloud computing, data analytics and productivity services to businesses and institutions.

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