Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading 1.1% Higher After Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shot up 1.1% on Wednesday after Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price target on the stock from $180.00 to $190.00. Canaccord Genuity Group currently has a buy rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $157.08 and last traded at $156.13. 5,858,530 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 80% from the average session volume of 30,020,330 shares. The stock had previously closed at $154.40.

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of other reports. Roth Mkm cut their price target on shares of Alphabet from $166.00 to $164.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $160.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $144.00 to $141.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $185.00 price objective (up from $178.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $173.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $157.97.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 230 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.06, for a total transaction of $35,433.80. Following the transaction, the director now owns 15,104 shares in the company, valued at $2,326,922.24. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 230 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.06, for a total transaction of $35,433.80. Following the transaction, the director now owns 15,104 shares in the company, valued at $2,326,922.24. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 2,332,691 shares in the company, valued at approximately $309,548,095.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 251,339 shares of company stock worth $36,377,482 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. RWQ Financial Management Services Inc. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 8.2% during the fourth quarter. RWQ Financial Management Services Inc. now owns 61,499 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,591,000 after buying an additional 4,664 shares in the last quarter. Ballast Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 9.6% during the third quarter. Ballast Advisors LLC now owns 15,747 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,061,000 after buying an additional 1,385 shares in the last quarter. Quantum Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 8.0% during the third quarter. Quantum Financial Advisors LLC now owns 7,623 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $998,000 after buying an additional 564 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 2.4% during the third quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 4,416,533 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $577,908,000 after buying an additional 104,366 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NatWest Group plc boosted its stake in Alphabet by 239.0% during the fourth quarter. NatWest Group plc now owns 100,793 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $14,080,000 after buying an additional 71,057 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Price 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 stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $146.16 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $140.40. The stock has a market cap of $1.94 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 EPS 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 company had revenue of $86.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $70.77 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.05 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 6.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.