Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price Expected to Rise, BMO Capital Markets Analyst Says

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price objective lifted by BMO Capital Markets from $200.00 to $208.00 in a report released on Tuesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has an “outperform” rating on the information services provider’s stock. BMO Capital Markets’ price target would suggest a potential upside of 13.68% from the company’s previous close.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the company. UBS Group set a $195.00 price target on Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price target on Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Alphabet from $175.00 to $177.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Westpark Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Citizens Jmp raised Alphabet from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $200.86.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $182.97 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $171.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $173.20. Alphabet has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $207.05. The firm has a market cap of $2.22 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $105,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 6,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,192,275. This represents a 8.09% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total value of $5,801,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,559,892 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $456,991,919.84. The trade was a 1.25% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 183,343 shares of company stock valued at $31,296,140. 11.64% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. TOWER TRUST & INVESTMENT Co grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% during the second quarter. TOWER TRUST & INVESTMENT Co now owns 14,259 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,513,000 after purchasing an additional 248 shares in the last quarter. Spirepoint Private Client LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 0.7% in the second quarter. Spirepoint Private Client LLC now owns 87,294 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,384,000 after acquiring an additional 631 shares in the last quarter. Independent Wealth Network Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 21.9% in the second quarter. Independent Wealth Network Inc. now owns 2,776 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $489,000 after acquiring an additional 498 shares in the last quarter. Ascent Capital Management LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 8.0% in the second quarter. Ascent Capital Management LLC now owns 4,274 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $753,000 after acquiring an additional 318 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TRU Independence Asset Management 2 LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 246.9% in the second quarter. TRU Independence Asset Management 2 LLC now owns 19,606 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,455,000 after acquiring an additional 13,954 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

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.