Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Lifted to Outperform at BNP Paribas

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL – Get Rating) was upgraded by investment analysts at BNP Paribas from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report issued on Friday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has a $123.00 price target on the information services provider’s stock. BNP Paribas’ price target would indicate a potential upside of 21.04% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on GOOGL. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $132.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $130.00 to $120.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 21st. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 3rd. Finally, MKM Partners upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $120.00 to $126.00 in a research note on Friday, February 3rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $132.44.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $101.62 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 2.34 and a current ratio of 2.38. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $95.08 and a 200 day moving average price of $96.18. Alphabet has a fifty-two week low of $83.34 and a fifty-two week high of $143.79. The firm has a market cap of $1.30 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.33, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.09.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL – Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 2nd. The information services provider reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.14 by ($0.09). Alphabet had a return on equity of 23.54% and a net margin of 21.20%. The company had revenue of $76.05 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $63.15 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.53 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet will post 5.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 22,203 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.75, for a total value of $1,992,719.25. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 76,579 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,872,965.25. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 22,203 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.75, for a total value of $1,992,719.25. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 76,579 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,872,965.25. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder 2021 Gp L.L.C. Gv acquired 415,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 13th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $29.29 per share, with a total value of $12,155,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,709,527 shares in the company, valued at $50,072,045.83. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 74,245 shares of company stock worth $7,174,078. Corporate insiders own 11.44% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Spreng Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Alphabet by 4.0% during the 1st quarter. Spreng Capital Management Inc. now owns 131 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $364,000 after acquiring an additional 5 shares during the period. West Family Investments Inc. raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. West Family Investments Inc. now owns 1,754 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,878,000 after buying an additional 6 shares in the last quarter. Maple Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. Maple Capital Management Inc. now owns 296 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $823,000 after buying an additional 6 shares in the last quarter. Private Advisory Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% in the 1st quarter. Private Advisory Group LLC now owns 401 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,115,000 after buying an additional 7 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Weik Capital Management raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Weik Capital Management now owns 1,533 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,264,000 after buying an additional 8 shares in the last quarter. 34.06% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Alphabet

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Alphabet, Inc engages in the business of delivering online advertising, cloud-based solutions that provide enterprise customers with infrastructure and platform services, the provision of communication and collaboration tools, and sales of other products and services such as apps and in-app purchases, hardware, and subscription-based products.