Rosenblatt Securities Has Lowered Expectations for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) had its target price cut by Rosenblatt Securities from $205.00 to $189.00 in a report released on Friday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have a neutral rating on the information services provider's stock.

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of other reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Alphabet from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday. Wolfe Research lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Mizuho dropped their price target on Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price target on Alphabet from $229.00 to $195.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $198.89.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of GOOGL stock traded down $0.25 on Friday, hitting $160.36. 17,819,430 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 28,257,097. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $161.69 and its 200 day simple moving average is $175.60. 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 has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $207.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.95 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 previous year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.52%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet's payout ratio is 9.36%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares in the company, valued at $430,917,877.76. This trade represents a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 1,340 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. This trade represents a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 148,163 shares of company stock valued at $25,361,647. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Optivise Advisory Services LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,464 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,035,000 after buying an additional 403 shares during the period. Community Bank N.A. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 6.4% during the 4th quarter. Community Bank N.A. now owns 46,173 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $8,741,000 after purchasing an additional 2,790 shares during the last quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd boosted its position in Alphabet by 30.0% during the fourth quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd now owns 61,792 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $11,816,000 after purchasing an additional 14,262 shares in the last quarter. Absolute Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 14.0% in the fourth quarter. Absolute Capital Management LLC now owns 2,096 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $401,000 after purchasing an additional 258 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Permanent Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $273,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.