Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Receives Buy Rating from Truist Financial

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by equities research analysts at Truist Financial in a note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $200.00 price target on the information services provider’s stock. Truist Financial’s target price points to a potential upside of 11.69% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. BNP Paribas Exane restated a “neutral” rating and set a $172.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Citizens Jmp upgraded Alphabet from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on Alphabet from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.95.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $179.08 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77. Alphabet has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $207.05. The firm has a market cap of $2.17 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.96, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $168.36 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $174.08.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $105,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 6,813 shares in the company, valued at $1,192,275. This trade represents a 8.09% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.87, for a total transaction of $5,553,275.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,620,196 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $447,712,890.52. This trade represents a 1.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 215,643 shares of company stock valued at $36,330,928 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. First Hawaiian Bank boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 4.8% in the second quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 2,238 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $394,000 after acquiring an additional 103 shares in the last quarter. Trinity Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Trinity Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,783 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $667,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares during the last quarter. Arvest Investments Inc. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 55.1% in the 2nd quarter. Arvest Investments Inc. now owns 25,114 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,426,000 after purchasing an additional 8,925 shares in the last quarter. TrueWealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 6.8% during the 2nd quarter. TrueWealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,546 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $625,000 after purchasing an additional 226 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Collective Family Office LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.6% during the second quarter. Collective Family Office LLC now owns 9,372 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,652,000 after buying an additional 239 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Company Profile

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.