Piper Sandler Reiterates “Overweight” Rating for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Piper Sandler reissued their overweight rating on shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in a research report released on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $210.00 target price on the information services provider’s stock, up from their previous target price of $200.00.

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of other reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $208.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Loop Capital reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $170.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Guggenheim boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $195.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $206.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $181.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $205.51.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.1 %

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $171.29 on Wednesday. Alphabet has a 52 week low of $126.93 and a 52 week high of $191.75. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $162.43 and a 200-day moving average price of $169.01. The company has a quick ratio of 2.08, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The company has a market cap of $2.11 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.72, a P/E/G ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.55 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Alphabet will post 7.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 10.61%.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total transaction of $5,570,188.20. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 312,210 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,765,346. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.44, for a total value of $109,420.08. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 32,017 shares in the company, valued at $5,136,807.48. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total transaction of $5,570,188.20. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 312,210 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,765,346. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 230,244 shares of company stock worth $37,776,954. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 43,005.6% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 18,743,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $31,086,250,000 after purchasing an additional 18,700,111 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 587.4% in the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 10,690,326 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,772,991,000 after buying an additional 9,135,056 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 14.4% during the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 57,803,291 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,724,251,000 after buying an additional 7,275,757 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 116.4% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 8,670,225 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,437,957,000 after acquiring an additional 4,662,809 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wulff Hansen & CO. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 18,810.2% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,434,260 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $807,700,000 after acquiring an additional 4,410,811 shares during the period. 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.