Jefferies Financial Group Boosts Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target to $180.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price target lifted by Jefferies Financial Group from $175.00 to $180.00 in a report published on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the information services provider’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Barclays lowered their price objective on Alphabet from $180.00 to $173.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $153.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. JMP Securities restated a market outperform rating and set a $160.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. BMO Capital Markets restated an outperform rating and set a $185.00 price objective (up from $178.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price target on Alphabet from $158.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $158.41.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $154.09 on Friday. 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 business’s 50 day moving average is $146.26 and its two-hundred day moving average is $140.64. The company has a market cap of $1.92 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet has a 12 month low of $102.63 and a 12 month high of $160.22.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $86.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $70.77 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 27.22% and a net margin of 24.01%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.05 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Alphabet will post 6.78 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 800 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.56, for a total value of $127,648.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 7,991 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,275,043.96. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 800 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.56, for a total value of $127,648.00. Following the completion of 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total value of $94,769.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 27,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,009,032.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 251,339 shares of company stock valued at $36,377,482. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Live Oak Investment Partners acquired a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Tributary Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet during the first quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. acquired a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Finally, Turim 21 Investimentos Ltda. acquired a new position in Alphabet during the third quarter valued at approximately $38,000. 40.03% 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, devices, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Play, Search, and YouTube.