Cantor Fitzgerald Predicts Reduced Earnings for Alphabet

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) – Analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald cut their FY2025 earnings per share estimates for shares of Alphabet in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, January 22nd. Cantor Fitzgerald analyst D. Mathivanan now anticipates that the information services provider will post earnings per share of $8.97 for the year, down from their prior estimate of $9.05. The consensus estimate for Alphabet’s current full-year earnings is $8.03 per share.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.39 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.55 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis.

GOOG has been the topic of several other reports. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Pivotal Research lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays boosted their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $200.56.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $200.03 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Alphabet has a 52 week low of $131.55 and a 52 week high of $203.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.45 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.99. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $186.95 and its 200-day moving average price is $175.06.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. now owns 5,787 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,102,000 after acquiring an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Nvest Financial LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 38.8% during the 4th quarter. Nvest Financial LLC now owns 2,227 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $424,000 after acquiring an additional 622 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 2,013,926 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $383,532,000 after acquiring an additional 31,894 shares in the last quarter. Asset Dedication LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 28,822 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,489,000 after acquiring an additional 102 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Verus Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth $254,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total transaction of $75,437.46. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 16,490 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,820,779.40. The trade was a 2.60 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total transaction of $550,702.88. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,847 shares in the company, valued at $3,468,029.04. The trade was a 13.70 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 133,387 shares of company stock valued at $24,368,654. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.40%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

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.