Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Given New $205.00 Price Target at Oppenheimer

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price objective boosted by equities researchers at Oppenheimer from $185.00 to $205.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the information services provider’s stock. Oppenheimer’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 20.08% from the stock’s current price.

GOOGL has been the topic of several other research reports. Wedbush lifted their price target on Alphabet from $175.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price target on Alphabet from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price target on Alphabet from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Alphabet from $141.00 to $168.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Alphabet from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $187.82.

Alphabet Stock Up 9.4 %

NASDAQ GOOGL traded up $14.72 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $170.72. 49,616,376 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 30,449,654. Alphabet has a 52-week low of $103.54 and a 52-week high of $174.71. The firm has a market cap of $2.12 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.54, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.05. 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 50 day moving average of $147.22 and a two-hundred day moving average of $141.16.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $86.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $70.77 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.05 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 6.78 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $157.41, for a total value of $3,541,725.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,303,011 shares in the company, valued at $362,516,961.51. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.56, for a total value of $127,648.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 7,991 shares in the company, valued at $1,275,043.96. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $157.41, for a total value of $3,541,725.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,303,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $362,516,961.51. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 251,339 shares of company stock worth $36,377,482. 0.88% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $15,441,917,000. FMR LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 5.6% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 227,317,469 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $29,746,764,000 after acquiring an additional 12,070,681 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 493,810,251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $68,980,354,000 after acquiring an additional 6,374,756 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado increased its stake in Alphabet by 39,754.9% during the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 6,025,667 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $841,725,000 after acquiring an additional 6,010,548 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 4,894.1% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 5,445,396 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,606,670,000 after acquiring an additional 5,336,359 shares during the last quarter. 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.