Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Given Outperform Rating at Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada reissued their outperform rating on shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) in a research note published on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has a $200.00 price target on the information services provider's stock.

Several other research firms have also 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 note on Wednesday, April 16th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a "market perform" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Truist Financial reduced their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, KeyCorp decreased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $202.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $198.63.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.7 %

NASDAQ GOOGL traded up $2.68 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $161.96. 55,957,898 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 28,290,487. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.97 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.12, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. Alphabet has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $207.05. The business's 50-day moving average is $162.18 and its 200-day moving average is $175.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a $0.21 dividend. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.52%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is 9.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total value of $33,106.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,293,285.89. The trade was a 2.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total transaction of $104,537.09. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,303 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,377,014.99. This represents a 4.21 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 148,163 shares of company stock valued at $25,361,647 over the last 90 days. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth approximately $24,383,677,000. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $47,025,322,000 after buying an additional 22,100,902 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 16,993.2% during the 1st 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 period. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $13,178,470,000 after acquiring an additional 10,135,430 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $13,635,878,000 after acquiring an additional 10,037,685 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.