Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Downgraded by StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday.

GOOGL has been the subject of several other reports. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an outperform rating and issued a $155.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, October 25th. Loop Capital lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $125.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a report on Friday, August 18th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $150.00 to $165.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 26th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $121.00 to $126.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a report on Tuesday, October 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Alphabet from $132.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Monday, July 17th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $147.00.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $136.93 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.04, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. Alphabet has a 12 month low of $84.86 and a 12 month high of $141.22. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $133.46 and a 200-day moving average of $127.15. The company has a market capitalization of $1.71 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.28, a P/E/G ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 24th. The information services provider reported $1.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $64.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $63.13 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 25.24% and a net margin of 22.46%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet will post 5.74 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $139.93, for a total value of $27,986.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 7,384 shares in the company, valued at $1,033,243.12. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 75,000 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $131.09, for a total transaction of $9,831,750.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 104,364 shares in the company, valued at $13,681,076.76. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $139.93, for a total value of $27,986.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 7,384 shares in the company, valued at $1,033,243.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 176,576 shares of company stock worth $23,425,367 over the last 90 days. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 1,919.4% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 477,035,902 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $45,628,484,000 after buying an additional 453,413,389 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 5.6% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 227,317,469 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $29,746,764,000 after buying an additional 12,070,681 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in Alphabet by 0.8% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 218,540,033 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $26,159,242,000 after buying an additional 1,666,205 shares during the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 111,197.8% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 170,420,243 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $15,036,178,000 after purchasing an additional 170,267,122 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.3% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 121,308,289 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $14,481,781,000 after purchasing an additional 2,731,671 shares in the last quarter. 35.08% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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, hardware, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Play, Search, and YouTube.