Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Trading Up 1.1% After Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s stock price rose 1.1% on Wednesday after Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on the stock from $154.00 to $174.00. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $158.68 and last traded at $157.73. Approximately 4,139,583 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 81% from the average daily volume of 22,167,635 shares. The stock had previously closed at $156.00.

GOOG has been the topic of several other research reports. Susquehanna upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $165.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $159.86.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,303,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $362,516,961.51. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total value of $94,769.40. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 27,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,009,032.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $157.41, for a total value of $3,541,725.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,303,011 shares in the company, valued at approximately $362,516,961.51. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 251,339 shares of company stock worth $36,377,482. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Totem Point Management LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 22.0% in the first quarter. Totem Point Management LLC now owns 3,171 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,857,000 after acquiring an additional 571 shares during the period. Somerville Kurt F lifted its stake in Alphabet by 10.3% in the first quarter. Somerville Kurt F now owns 118 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $330,000 after purchasing an additional 11 shares during the last quarter. BCK Partners Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet during the first quarter valued at $2,564,000. Hall Capital Management Co. Inc. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 53.2% during the first quarter. Hall Capital Management Co. Inc. now owns 144 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $402,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. Finally, Fairfield Bush & CO. increased its position in Alphabet by 6.8% in the first quarter. Fairfield Bush & CO. now owns 3,370 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,412,000 after buying an additional 214 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 2.10, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The stock has a market cap of $1.95 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.05, a PEG ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.05. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $147.15 and a 200 day moving average price of $141.61.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $86.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $85.28 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 24.01% and a return on equity of 27.22%. The company’s revenue was up 13.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.05 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 6.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.