JPMorgan Chase & Co. Has Lowered Expectations for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price objective trimmed by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $232.00 to $220.00 in a report issued on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the information services provider’s stock.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on GOOGL. DA Davidson upped their price target on Alphabet from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Bank of America reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target 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. Finally, Wedbush lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $210.95.

Alphabet Stock Down 7.3 %

Shares of GOOGL opened at $191.33 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $190.39 and its 200 day moving average price is $174.40. Alphabet has a 12-month low of $130.66 and a 12-month high of $207.05. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm has a market cap of $2.34 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.99.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total transaction of $6,870,532.68. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. This trade represents a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,848 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. The trade was a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 89,529 shares of company stock valued at $16,600,078. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Maverick Capital Ltd. acquired a new position in Alphabet during the second quarter worth $2,038,000. Matrix Private Capital Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.9% during the 2nd quarter. Matrix Private Capital Group LLC now owns 6,046 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,101,000 after purchasing an additional 226 shares during the period. Makena Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 31.6% in the 2nd quarter. Makena Capital Management LLC now owns 91,520 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $16,670,000 after purchasing an additional 21,997 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 14.6% in the second quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 7,660,106 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,395,288,000 after purchasing an additional 975,341 shares during the period. Finally, Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the second quarter worth about $610,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.