Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Rating Increased to Market Outperform at JMP Securities

JMP Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) from a market perform rating to a market outperform rating in a research note published on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have $220.00 target price on the information services provider's stock.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on GOOGL. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and set a $178.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. BNP Paribas Exane reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $172.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, DA Davidson decreased their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $199.95.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.3%

NASDAQ GOOGL traded down $2.33 during trading on Friday, hitting $176.20. The stock had a trading volume of 63,005,261 shares, compared to its average volume of 31,374,101. The company has a market capitalization of $2.14 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.64, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $207.05. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $166.45 and a 200 day moving average price of $174.26.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. Alphabet's payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $105,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 6,813 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,192,275. This trade represents a 8.09% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 216,195 shares of company stock valued at $35,764,898. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $24,383,677,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the first quarter valued at about $4,317,606,000. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 9.8% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $47,025,322,000 after purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 16,993.2% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,483,898,000 after buying an additional 15,968,487 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $78,839,544,000 after acquiring an additional 14,307,345 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.