Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target Raised to $195.00 at Morgan Stanley

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its target price raised by equities researchers at Morgan Stanley from $165.00 to $195.00 in a research note issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the information services provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 13.41% from the company’s current price.

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of other reports. Wedbush increased their target price on Alphabet from $175.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on Alphabet from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Wolfe Research increased their target price on Alphabet from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their target price on Alphabet from $180.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on Alphabet from $173.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $187.82.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $171.95 on Friday. 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 market cap of $2.14 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.05. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $147.85 and a 200-day moving average of $141.42. Alphabet has a one year low of $103.54 and a one year high of $174.71.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its 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 30.01% and a net margin of 25.90%. The business had revenue of $86.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $70.77 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.05 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet will post 6.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total transaction of $508,150.26. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 144,685 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,566,519.45. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 in the company, valued at approximately $4,009,032.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total value of $508,150.26. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 144,685 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,566,519.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 253,439 shares of company stock worth $36,746,578 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Tributary Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet in the first quarter valued at about $30,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. acquired a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $38,000. Meritage Group LP raised its stake in Alphabet by 1,061.5% in the third quarter. Meritage Group LP now owns 302 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 276 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Macroview Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 165.8% in the third quarter. Macroview Investment Management LLC now owns 319 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 199 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.