Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) PT Raised to $200.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price target raised by investment analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from $180.00 to $200.00 in a note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the information services provider’s stock. Jefferies Financial Group’s price target suggests a potential upside of 16.42% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Alphabet from $165.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Truist Financial increased their price target on Alphabet from $158.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Wedbush raised their price objective on Alphabet from $175.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. JMP Securities raised their price objective on Alphabet from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on Alphabet from $165.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $178.32.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL traded up $15.79 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $171.79. 35,913,944 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 30,280,404. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a current ratio of 2.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.14 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.48, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet has a one year low of $103.54 and a one year high of $174.71. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $147.22 and a two-hundred day moving average of $141.16.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. Alphabet had a return on equity of 27.22% and a net margin of 24.01%. The business had revenue of $86.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $70.77 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.05 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 6.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $157.41, for a total value of $3,541,725.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,303,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $362,516,961.51. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, Director Frances Arnold sold 230 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.06, for a total transaction of $35,433.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 15,104 shares in the company, valued at $2,326,922.24. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $157.41, for a total transaction of $3,541,725.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,303,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $362,516,961.51. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 251,339 shares of company stock valued at $36,377,482. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $15,441,917,000. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 227,317,469 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $29,746,764,000 after buying an additional 12,070,681 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 493,810,251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $68,980,354,000 after buying an additional 6,374,756 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 39,754.9% during the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 6,025,667 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $841,725,000 after purchasing an additional 6,010,548 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 4,894.1% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 5,445,396 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,606,670,000 after purchasing an additional 5,336,359 shares during the period. 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.