Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Given New $208.00 Price Target at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price objective hoisted by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $200.00 to $208.00 in a research note released on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an overweight rating on the information services provider’s stock.

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of other reports. Bank of America raised their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $206.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a buy rating and issued a $196.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $150.00 to $166.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an outperform rating and issued a $222.00 price objective (up previously from $215.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Truist Financial lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $203.74.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $167.00 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $179.04 and a 200 day moving average of $160.48. Alphabet has a 12 month low of $120.21 and a 12 month high of $191.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.06 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 2.15.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. The company had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $70.60 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.44 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced 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 of this dividend is Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 12.27%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.67, for a total value of $113,668.94. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,284 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,880,764.28. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.08, for a total value of $252,120.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 4,391 shares in the company, valued at $738,039.28. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.67, for a total value of $113,668.94. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,284 shares in the company, valued at $4,880,764.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 122,388 shares of company stock worth $21,497,609. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Alphabet by 0.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 497,874,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $75,144,172,000 after purchasing an additional 4,064,073 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $15,441,917,000. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in 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 worth $8,724,251,000 after purchasing an additional 7,275,757 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in Alphabet by 0.5% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 49,472,478 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,011,412,000 after purchasing an additional 238,403 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,220,857 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,316,902,000 after purchasing an additional 1,472,043 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.