Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.04 EPS

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04, RTT News reports. Alphabet had a return on equity of 29.52% and a net margin of 25.90%. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.44 EPS.

Alphabet Stock Down 4.1 %

NASDAQ:GOOGL traded down $7.43 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $174.36. 19,511,463 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 27,733,162. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.15 and a quick ratio of 2.15. Alphabet has a twelve month low of $120.21 and a twelve month high of $191.75. The stock has a market cap of $2.15 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.70, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.05. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $179.36 and a 200 day moving average of $160.01.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 10th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.46%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 12.27%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,880,764.28. The transaction was disclosed in a legal 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 Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.67, for a total value of $113,668.94. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,284 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,880,764.28. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $182.84, for a total transaction of $4,113,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,204,885 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $403,141,173.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 124,488 shares of company stock valued at $21,866,705 over the last 90 days. 11.55% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on GOOGL. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday. Raymond James lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Alphabet from $187.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $170.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Finally, Argus raised their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $203.11.

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.