Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading Up 9.6% After Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was up 9.6% during trading on Friday after Oppenheimer raised their price target on the stock from $185.00 to $205.00. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $174.71 and last traded at $170.97. Approximately 33,969,957 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 12% from the average daily volume of 30,255,492 shares. The stock had previously closed at $156.00.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on Alphabet from $165.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on Alphabet from $160.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $141.00 to $168.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $187.82.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.70, for a total value of $2,985,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,332,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $309,548,095.70. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.70, for a total value of $2,985,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,332,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $309,548,095.70. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Ruth Porat sold 48,077 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.22, for a total value of $6,597,125.94. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 1,777,106 shares in the company, valued at approximately $243,854,485.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 253,439 shares of company stock worth $36,746,578 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Alphabet by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 493,810,251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $68,980,354,000 after acquiring an additional 6,374,756 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 227,317,469 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $29,746,764,000 after purchasing an additional 12,070,681 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $15,441,917,000. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in Alphabet by 3.7% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 67,684,197 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,857,154,000 after purchasing an additional 2,416,328 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,220,857 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,316,902,000 after buying an additional 1,472,043 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.10 and a quick ratio of 2.10. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $147.85 and a 200-day simple moving average of $141.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.14 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $86.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $70.77 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 24.01% and a return on equity of 27.22%. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.05 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 6.78 EPS for the current year.

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.