Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target Raised to $245.00 at Wedbush

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price objective hoisted by research analysts at Wedbush from $225.00 to $245.00 in a report released on Wednesday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage currently has an “outperform” rating on the information services provider’s stock. Wedbush’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 5.47% from the stock’s current price.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Alphabet from $184.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Guggenheim boosted their target price on Alphabet from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $218.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, Loop Capital reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $190.00 price objective (up previously from $165.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have assigned a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $221.31.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.7%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $232.30 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The company has a market cap of $2.81 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.74, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $232.37. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $194.66 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $175.13.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.60 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%. As a group, analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $199.92, for a total transaction of $6,497,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,462,392 shares in the company, valued at approximately $492,281,408.64. This represents a 1.30% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total value of $3,448,820.16. Following the transaction, the director owned 243,400 shares in the company, valued at $45,213,984. The trade was a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 222,210 shares of company stock valued at $41,742,155 over the last 90 days. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Beddow Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Beddow Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,510 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $445,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Gimbal Financial lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. Gimbal Financial now owns 2,776 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $489,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Missouri Trust & Investment Co lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Missouri Trust & Investment Co now owns 16,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,981,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Silver Coast Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Silver Coast Investments LLC now owns 4,317 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $761,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Finally, North Berkeley Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. North Berkeley Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,200 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $740,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.