Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price Up 9.6% After Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s share price rose 9.6% during mid-day trading 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 $170.97. Approximately 33,969,957 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 12% from the average daily volume of 30,255,492 shares. The stock had previously closed at $156.00.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Wedbush increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $175.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Redburn Atlantic raised their price target on Alphabet from $150.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Alphabet from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. KeyCorp increased their target price on Alphabet from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price target on Alphabet from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $187.82.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total transaction of $94,769.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,009,032.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total transaction 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 is available at this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 2,100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.76, for a total value of $369,096.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 5,891 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,035,402.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 253,439 shares of company stock worth $36,746,578 over the last three months. 0.88% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Chico Wealth RIA purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the third quarter worth about $330,000. Summit Global Investments lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 67.7% in the 3rd quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 241,463 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $31,598,000 after purchasing an additional 97,466 shares during the period. Prentice Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 18.1% during the third quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,140 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $934,000 after purchasing an additional 1,096 shares in the last quarter. Sunflower Bank N.A. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 6.3% during the third quarter. Sunflower Bank N.A. now owns 5,951 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $779,000 after buying an additional 353 shares during the period. Finally, David J Yvars Group increased its holdings in Alphabet by 10.3% during the third quarter. David J Yvars Group now owns 4,170 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $546,000 after buying an additional 390 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Up 10.2 %

The business’s 50 day moving average is $147.85 and its 200 day moving average is $141.39. The company has a quick ratio of 2.10, a current ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The company has a market cap of $2.14 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.65, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. Alphabet had a return on equity of 27.22% and a net margin of 24.01%. The firm had revenue of $86.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $70.77 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.05 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate 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.