Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Given Market Perform Rating at JMP Securities

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)‘s stock had its “market perform” rating reiterated by equities researchers at JMP Securities in a research report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on GOOGL. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Phillip Securities raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Pivotal Research upped their price target on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Citizens Jmp downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $207.08.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.5 %

NASDAQ GOOGL traded down $0.99 during trading on Friday, hitting $192.96. The stock had a trading volume of 8,242,334 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,067,381. The company has a market capitalization of $2.36 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.59, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.98. Alphabet has a 12 month low of $130.66 and a 12 month high of $201.42. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $182.20 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $173.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.55 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.01 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.95, for a total transaction of $247,425.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 26,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,342,143.80. The trade was a 5.39 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total value of $6,870,532.68. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 282,832 shares in the company, valued at $52,329,576.64. This represents a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 155,887 shares of company stock valued at $27,996,356 in the last three months. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. LMR Partners LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth about $32,000. Denver PWM LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at $41,000. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth $53,000. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at about $66,000. Finally, Mendota Financial Group LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 19.0% during the 3rd quarter. Mendota Financial Group LLC now owns 401 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $67,000 after acquiring an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

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.