Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Given Buy Rating at Citigroup

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Citigroup in a research note issued on Tuesday, Marketbeat.com reports. They presently have a $203.00 price objective on the information services provider’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $200.00. Citigroup’s price target indicates a potential upside of 18.94% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts have also recently weighed in on GOOGL. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $200.00 target price (down from $230.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Mizuho cut their price target on Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on Alphabet from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Westpark Capital reissued a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $200.17.

Alphabet Stock Up 2.3%

Alphabet stock opened at $170.68 on Tuesday. Alphabet has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $207.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 1.77. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $165.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $174.58. The stock has a market cap of $2.07 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.89 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Alphabet will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.90, for a total transaction of $32,380.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 7,613 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,232,544.70. This trade represents a 2.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This trade represents a 1.18% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 216,306 shares of company stock worth $35,782,927 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 2.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $78,839,544,000 after purchasing an additional 14,307,345 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $47,025,322,000 after buying an additional 22,100,902 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 8.3% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $18,672,198,000 after acquiring an additional 7,574,417 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors grew its position in Alphabet by 16.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,635,878,000 after acquiring an additional 10,037,685 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.