Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Receives Outperform Rating from BMO Capital Markets

BMO Capital Markets reissued their outperform rating on shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in a research report report published on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. BMO Capital Markets currently has a $185.00 price objective on the information services provider’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $178.00.

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Rosenblatt Securities cut their price target on Alphabet from $174.00 to $172.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Wedbush reaffirmed an outperform rating and set a $175.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a buy rating and set a $160.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. JMP Securities raised their price target on Alphabet from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a market outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, StockNews.com raised Alphabet from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a report on Wednesday, December 20th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $155.61.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $156.14 on Wednesday. Alphabet has a 1-year low of $102.63 and a 1-year high of $158.56. The company has a current ratio of 2.10, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $144.65 and a 200 day simple moving average of $139.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.94 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.92, a P/E/G ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. Alphabet had a net margin of 24.01% and a return on equity of 27.22%. The business had revenue of $86.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $70.77 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.05 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Alphabet will post 6.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total value of $508,150.26. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 144,685 shares in the company, valued at $22,566,519.45. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.67, for a total transaction of $3,502,575.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,325,513 shares in the company, valued at $362,012,608.71. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total value of $508,150.26. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 144,685 shares in the company, valued at $22,566,519.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 250,539 shares of company stock worth $35,906,259 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings 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 valued at $45,628,484,000 after acquiring an additional 453,413,389 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 1,900.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 217,154,306 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $20,770,809,000 after acquiring an additional 206,300,042 shares during the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 170,267,122 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $15,441,917,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 1,759.2% in the third quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 116,116,066 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $11,106,502,000 after acquiring an additional 109,870,525 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.