Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Hits New 1-Year High on Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) hit a new 52-week high on Friday after Oppenheimer raised their price target on the stock from $185.00 to $205.00. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $174.71 and last traded at $171.69, with a volume of 21504390 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $156.00.

Several other research firms also recently issued reports on GOOGL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $165.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Alphabet from $174.00 to $196.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $200.00 target price (up previously from $160.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday. Wolfe Research increased their price objective on Alphabet from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Alphabet from $165.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Five 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $187.82.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Ruth Porat sold 48,077 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.22, for a total value of $6,597,125.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 1,777,106 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $243,854,485.32. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Ruth Porat sold 48,077 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.22, for a total value of $6,597,125.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 1,777,106 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $243,854,485.32. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 230 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.06, for a total value of $35,433.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 15,104 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,326,922.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 253,439 shares of company stock valued at $36,746,578. 0.88% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $15,441,917,000. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.6% in the third 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 in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 39,754.9% in the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 6,025,667 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $841,725,000 after buying an additional 6,010,548 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4,894.1% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 5,445,396 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,606,670,000 after buying an additional 5,336,359 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $2.14 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.10 and a quick ratio of 2.10. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $147.85 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $141.39.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $86.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $70.77 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.05 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 6.78 EPS 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.