Wells Fargo & Company Boosts Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target to $187.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price objective hoisted by Wells Fargo & Company from $182.00 to $187.00 in a research report released on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the information services provider’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on GOOGL. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $200.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Tigress Financial increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Argus increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $240.00 target price for the company. Finally, DA Davidson started coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $170.00 target price for the company. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $205.51.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL opened at $171.29 on Wednesday. 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 PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.03. Alphabet has a 52-week low of $126.93 and a 52-week high of $191.75. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $162.43 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $169.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The business 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 period last year, the firm posted $1.55 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 7.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend 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 related news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total value of $5,570,188.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 312,210 shares in the company, valued at $50,765,346. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total value of $5,570,188.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 312,210 shares in the company, valued at $50,765,346. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.35, for a total transaction of $3,652,875.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,182,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $354,310,204.75. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 230,244 shares of company stock valued at $37,776,954. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Costello Asset Management INC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 0.9% during the third quarter. Costello Asset Management INC now owns 30,638 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,081,000 after purchasing an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. Rocky Mountain Advisers LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 33.2% during the third quarter. Rocky Mountain Advisers LLC now owns 3,210 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $532,000 after purchasing an additional 800 shares in the last quarter. 17 Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 4.2% during the third quarter. 17 Capital Partners LLC now owns 19,985 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,315,000 after purchasing an additional 800 shares in the last quarter. Mach 1 Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 12.7% during the third quarter. Mach 1 Financial Group LLC now owns 5,242 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $869,000 after purchasing an additional 591 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 1.0% during the third quarter. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. now owns 414,394 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $68,728,000 after purchasing an additional 4,035 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.