Wells Fargo & Company Increases Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target to $190.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price objective hoisted by Wells Fargo & Company from $187.00 to $190.00 in a research note released on Wednesday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the information services provider’s stock.

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of other reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a buy rating and set a $196.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a neutral rating and set a $181.00 price objective (down from $182.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, June 28th. Raymond James boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Wedbush restated an outperform rating and set a $205.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $203.74.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.2 %

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $167.00 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.06 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.61, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.05. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $179.04 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $160.48. Alphabet has a 12 month low of $120.21 and a 12 month high of $191.75.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $70.60 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.44 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Alphabet will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 9th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 12.27%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $182.84, for a total value of $4,113,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,204,885 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $403,141,173.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.85, for a total value of $278,775.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 30,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,728,640.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $182.84, for a total transaction of $4,113,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,204,885 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $403,141,173.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 122,388 shares of company stock valued at $21,497,609 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth $15,441,917,000. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in Alphabet by 14.4% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 57,803,291 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,724,251,000 after purchasing an additional 7,275,757 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 493,810,251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $68,980,354,000 after purchasing an additional 6,374,756 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado raised its holdings in Alphabet by 39,754.9% in the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 6,025,667 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $841,725,000 after purchasing an additional 6,010,548 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 4,894.1% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 5,445,396 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,606,670,000 after purchasing an additional 5,336,359 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Company Profile

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.