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

Key Points

• Alphabet Inc. has received an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from 45 research firms, with 32 analysts rating it as a buy and 3 as a strong buy.
• The company recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.21 per share, reflecting a 0.3% dividend yield and a payout ratio of 8.95%.
• Insider selling activity included Director John L. Hennessy and CEO Sundar Pichai offloading shares, representing a combined decrease in their holdings after substantial sales valued at over $6.6 million.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) has been given an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by the forty-five research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-two have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $221.4359.

Several research firms recently issued reports on GOOGL. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $230.00 to $265.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $196.00 to $201.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Citigroup reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, July 21st.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total value of $200,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 6,916 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,383,200. This represents a 12.63% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $199.92, for a total value of $6,497,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,462,392 shares in the company, valued at approximately $492,281,408.64. The trade was a 1.30% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 254,710 shares of company stock worth $49,208,380. Insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 516,559,609 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $91,033,300,000 after purchasing an additional 6,733,278 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $40,524,841,000 after purchasing an additional 4,008,374 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 141,615,284 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $24,857,017,000 after purchasing an additional 4,224,497 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $21,944,208,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 44,151,820 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $7,780,875,000 after purchasing an additional 503,306 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of Alphabet stock traded up $0.43 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $240.80. The company's stock had a trading volume of 26,758,216 shares, compared to its average volume of 35,407,372. Alphabet has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $242.25. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $200.66 and a 200-day moving average of $177.03. The stock has a market cap of $2.91 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.16. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%.The business had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.60 billion. Research analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is presently 8.95%.

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.