Cantor Fitzgerald Forecasts Increased Earnings for Alphabet

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) – Analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald raised their FY2024 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for shares of Alphabet in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, January 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald analyst D. Mathivanan now expects that the information services provider will post earnings of $8.06 per share for the year, up from their prior estimate of $7.96. The consensus estimate for Alphabet’s current full-year earnings is $8.02 per share.

GOOG has been the topic of several other reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citizens Jmp downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Scotiabank began coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, October 11th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 price objective for the company. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $200.56.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG opened at $196.71 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.41 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.09, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95. Alphabet has a one year low of $131.55 and a one year high of $202.88. The business has a fifty day moving average of $182.87 and a 200 day moving average of $174.23.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The firm’s revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.55 EPS.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 114,802,133 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $19,193,768,000 after purchasing an additional 5,655,022 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 10.3% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 33,334,082 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,573,125,000 after buying an additional 3,113,395 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in Alphabet by 65.9% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 6,294,332 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,052,349,000 after buying an additional 2,500,621 shares during the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its stake in Alphabet by 27.8% during the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 7,499,245 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,375,512,000 after buying an additional 1,632,691 shares during the period. Finally, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund increased its position in Alphabet by 182.1% during the third quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 2,526,055 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $422,331,000 after acquiring an additional 1,630,701 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.95, for a total transaction of $247,425.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 26,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,342,143.80. This represents a 5.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.23, for a total transaction of $473,929.82. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 26,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,406,343.27. The trade was a 9.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 155,887 shares of company stock worth $27,996,356 in the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.41%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

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.