Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Up 0.5% on Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s stock price traded up 0.5% during mid-day trading on Thursday after Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price target on the stock from $180.00 to $190.00. Canaccord Genuity Group currently has a buy rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $156.41 and last traded at $156.31. 4,959,656 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 83% from the average session volume of 29,900,307 shares. The stock had previously closed at $155.47.

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $168.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $155.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. StockNews.com raised Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 20th. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $185.00 price objective (up from $178.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price objective on Alphabet from $153.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-seven have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $157.97.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total value of $94,769.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 27,920 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,009,032.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total transaction of $94,769.40. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 27,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,009,032.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 230 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.06, for a total value of $35,433.80. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 15,104 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,326,922.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 251,339 shares of company stock worth $36,377,482. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Bornite Capital Management LP acquired a new position in Alphabet during the first quarter worth approximately $16,688,000. Markel Corp increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% in the first quarter. Markel Corp now owns 15,500 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $43,110,000 after purchasing an additional 2,250 shares during the period. United Bank increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5.9% in the first quarter. United Bank now owns 2,033 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,654,000 after purchasing an additional 113 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 23.4% in the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 323,918 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $900,929,000 after purchasing an additional 61,427 shares during the period. Finally, Dakota Wealth Management increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 20.4% in the first quarter. Dakota Wealth Management now owns 9,279 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $25,806,000 after purchasing an additional 1,570 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 2.10, a current ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The firm has a market cap of $1.94 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.05. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $145.95 and a 200-day moving average price of $140.29.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $86.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $70.77 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 27.22% and a net margin of 24.01%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.05 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 6.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.