Wedbush Increases Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target to $205.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its target price hoisted by analysts at Wedbush from $175.00 to $205.00 in a report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the information services provider’s stock. Wedbush’s price target indicates a potential upside of 31.41% from the company’s current price.

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on Alphabet from $175.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 19th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $165.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday. Roth Mkm reduced their price objective on Alphabet from $166.00 to $164.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price target on Alphabet from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Truist Financial upped their target price on Alphabet from $158.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $173.00.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.0 %

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $156.00 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $147.22 and its 200-day moving average price is $141.16. The company has a current ratio of 2.10, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The stock has a market cap of $1.94 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.90, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet has a twelve month low of $102.63 and a twelve month high of $160.22.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. Alphabet had a net margin of 24.01% and a return on equity of 27.22%. The business had revenue of $86.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $70.77 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.05 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Alphabet will post 6.78 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Ruth Porat sold 48,077 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.22, for a total value of $6,597,125.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 1,777,106 shares in the company, valued at approximately $243,854,485.32. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, CFO Ruth Porat sold 48,077 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.22, for a total transaction of $6,597,125.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 1,777,106 shares in the company, valued at $243,854,485.32. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,009,032.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 251,339 shares of company stock worth $36,377,482. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. RWQ Financial Management Services Inc. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 8.2% in the fourth quarter. RWQ Financial Management Services Inc. now owns 61,499 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,591,000 after acquiring an additional 4,664 shares in the last quarter. Ballast Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.6% in the third quarter. Ballast Advisors LLC now owns 15,747 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,061,000 after buying an additional 1,385 shares in the last quarter. Quantum Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 8.0% in the third quarter. Quantum Financial Advisors LLC now owns 7,623 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $998,000 after buying an additional 564 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% in the third quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 4,416,533 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $577,908,000 after buying an additional 104,366 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NatWest Group plc lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 239.0% in the fourth quarter. NatWest Group plc now owns 100,793 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $14,080,000 after buying an additional 71,057 shares in the last quarter. 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.