Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Up 1.7% on Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s share price was up 1.7% on Tuesday after Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on the stock from $210.00 to $225.00. Needham & Company LLC currently has a buy rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $195.40 and last traded at $195.15. Approximately 7,573,527 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 68% from the average daily volume of 24,000,145 shares. The stock had previously closed at $191.81.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, December 12th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Pivotal Research upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Scotiabank upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $209.82.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.36, for a total transaction of $3,990,600.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,084,306 shares in the company, valued at approximately $369,672,512.16. The trade was a 1.07 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $180.78, for a total transaction of $1,898,190.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 330,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $59,741,643.48. This trade represents a 3.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 133,387 shares of company stock valued at $24,368,654. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Centerline Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth $218,000. FFG Partners LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. FFG Partners LLC now owns 78,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $14,816,000 after buying an additional 627 shares during the period. SMART Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 178.1% in the fourth quarter. SMART Wealth LLC now owns 7,702 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,458,000 after buying an additional 4,932 shares during the period. Lodestar Private Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Lodestar Private Asset Management LLC now owns 9,881 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,870,000 after acquiring an additional 327 shares during the period. Finally, Global X Japan Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. now owns 155,940 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $29,519,000 after acquiring an additional 3,385 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.7 %

The business’s 50 day moving average is $186.79 and its 200 day moving average is $173.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. The stock has a market cap of $2.39 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.98.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.55 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current year.

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.