BMO Capital Markets Boosts Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target to $225.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) had its price target upped by BMO Capital Markets from $208.00 to $225.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. BMO Capital Markets currently has an outperform rating on the information services provider's stock.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on GOOGL. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday. Citizens Jmp raised shares of Alphabet from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $220.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, June 27th. Wedbush set a $190.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, Susquehanna cut their price target on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a "positive" rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 25th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $211.32.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.5%

NASDAQ GOOGL traded up $1.01 during trading on Thursday, reaching $193.18. 39,738,342 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 41,427,228. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.77. The firm has a market cap of $2.34 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.00. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $175.77 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $172.93. Alphabet has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.89 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company 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. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet's payout ratio is currently 8.95%.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 400 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, July 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.98, for a total value of $72,792.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 6,013 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,094,245.74. This trade represents a 6.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total value of $3,448,820.16. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 243,400 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $45,213,984. This trade represents a 7.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 249,409 shares of company stock valued at $43,523,710. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Mystic Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 6.7% during the 1st quarter. Mystic Asset Management Inc. now owns 28,454 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $4,400,000 after buying an additional 1,791 shares during the last quarter. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co increased its position in Alphabet by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co now owns 27,075 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $4,187,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Rockbridge Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $3,119,000. Cypress Capital LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 4.1% during the 1st quarter. Cypress Capital LLC now owns 14,310 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,213,000 after purchasing an additional 563 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Optivise Advisory Services LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,464 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,035,000 after purchasing an additional 403 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.