Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Raised to Buy at Wall Street Zen

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was upgraded by Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Saturday.

GOOGL has been the topic of several other research reports. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $192.00 to $202.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Citigroup reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $232.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Roth Capital upped their price objective on Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have given a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $221.44.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of GOOGL opened at $240.80 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.91 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.64, a PEG ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $242.25. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $201.89 and its 200-day simple moving average is $177.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $229.73, for a total transaction of $7,466,225.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,429,892 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $558,219,089.16. This represents a 1.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.70, for a total value of $4,637,754.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 42,999 shares in the company, valued at $8,371,905.30. This represents a 35.65% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 254,710 shares of company stock valued at $49,208,380 in the last quarter. 11.64% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Milestones Private Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $355,000. Troy Asset Management Ltd boosted its position in Alphabet by 32.8% during the 2nd quarter. Troy Asset Management Ltd now owns 3,090,732 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $544,680,000 after acquiring an additional 763,225 shares during the last quarter. American Trust grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 18.2% during the 2nd quarter. American Trust now owns 24,751 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,362,000 after acquiring an additional 3,810 shares in the last quarter. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $135,000. Finally, Lavaca Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 6.2% in the second quarter. Lavaca Capital LLC now owns 6,860 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,209,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.