Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Upgraded by Wall Street Zen to “Buy” Rating

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was upgraded by investment analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report issued on Saturday.

A number of other research analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. DA Davidson raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 2nd. BNP Paribas Exane reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $172.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price target on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $232.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have assigned a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $221.44.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.2%

GOOGL opened at $240.80 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.91 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90. Alphabet has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $242.25. The business has a 50-day moving average of $201.89 and a 200-day moving average of $177.48.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.60 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 15,000 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $2,786,400.00. Following the sale, the director owned 240,400 shares in the company, valued at $44,656,704. The trade was a 5.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.70, for a total transaction of $4,637,754.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 42,999 shares in the company, valued at $8,371,905.30. This trade represents a 35.65% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 254,710 shares of company stock worth $49,208,380 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 516,559,609 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $91,033,300,000 after buying an additional 6,733,278 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in Alphabet by 1.8% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $40,524,841,000 after acquiring an additional 4,008,374 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 3.1% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 141,615,284 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $24,857,017,000 after acquiring an additional 4,224,497 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter valued at $21,944,208,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.2% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 44,151,820 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,780,875,000 after acquiring an additional 503,306 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.