Pivotal Research Begins Coverage on Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Equities research analysts at Pivotal Research began coverage on shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) in a research report issued on Tuesday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage set a “buy” rating and a $215.00 price target on the information services provider’s stock. Pivotal Research’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 28.50% from the stock’s current price.

GOOG has been the topic of a number of other reports. Cantor Fitzgerald raised Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Oppenheimer dropped their price target on Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. DA Davidson raised Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $183.75.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $167.31 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $163.57 and its 200 day moving average price is $168.50. The firm has a market cap of $2.07 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.66, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.04. Alphabet has a 52-week low of $121.46 and a 52-week high of $193.31. The company has a quick ratio of 2.08, a current ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.22 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. Alphabet’s revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.44 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.00, for a total transaction of $114,576.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 31,334 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,264,112. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 21,467 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.35, for a total value of $3,442,233.45. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 39,334 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,307,206.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.00, for a total value of $114,576.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 31,334 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,264,112. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 217,592 shares of company stock worth $35,922,911 in the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Richardson Financial Services Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 9,200.0% in the 2nd quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 186 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 184 shares during the period. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $37,000. HWG Holdings LP bought a new position in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, Slocum Gordon & Co LLP bought a new position in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $44,000. 27.26% of the stock is 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.