Cantor Fitzgerald Reaffirms Neutral Rating for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed their neutral rating on shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in a research note issued to investors on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. Cantor Fitzgerald currently has a $190.00 price target on the information services provider’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Wedbush restated an outperform rating and set a $205.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. DA Davidson started coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. They set a neutral rating and a $170.00 target price on the stock. Argus lifted their price target 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. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on Alphabet from $225.00 to $200.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a report on Monday, September 16th. Finally, JMP Securities reaffirmed a market outperform rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, September 16th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $201.35.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.8 %

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $162.73 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.08, a current ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.01 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.96, a P/E/G ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.04. Alphabet has a 52-week low of $120.21 and a 52-week high of $191.75. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $163.41 and a 200 day moving average price of $166.14.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $70.60 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.44 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Alphabet will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 12.27%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total transaction of $125,126.54. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 30,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,623,355.50. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total value of $125,126.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 30,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,623,355.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.75, for a total value of $123,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 28,524 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,385,565. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 180,867 shares of company stock worth $29,878,106 over the last three months. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.8% in 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 acquiring an additional 4,064,073 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in shares of 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 valued at $8,724,251,000 after purchasing an additional 7,275,757 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 238,403 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,178,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,310,925,000 after buying an additional 1,429,261 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors raised its holdings in Alphabet by 1.7% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 35,412,299 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,344,778,000 after acquiring an additional 597,756 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

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.