Piper Sandler Reiterates “Overweight” Rating for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reiterated by Piper Sandler in a report released on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $210.00 price target on the information services provider’s stock, up from their prior price target of $200.00. Piper Sandler’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 16.97% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on GOOGL. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $190.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, October 7th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $200.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday. Finally, DA Davidson initiated coverage on Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $170.00 price objective for the company. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $203.13.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL traded up $9.86 on Wednesday, reaching $179.54. The stock had a trading volume of 37,858,809 shares, compared to its average volume of 26,993,289. Alphabet has a 1-year low of $122.68 and a 1-year high of $191.75. The company has a market cap of $2.22 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 2.08. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $162.00 and a two-hundred day moving average of $168.74.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.85 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.55 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 7.65 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total transaction of $429,587.55. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,182 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,421,948.46. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total value of $429,587.55. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,182 shares in the company, valued at $4,421,948.46. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.35, for a total transaction of $3,652,875.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,182,385 shares in the company, valued at $354,310,204.75. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 220,426 shares of company stock valued at $35,993,340. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Burns J W & Co. Inc. NY grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 7.4% during the 1st quarter. Burns J W & Co. Inc. NY now owns 24,861 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,752,000 after buying an additional 1,720 shares in the last quarter. Grimes & Company Inc. lifted its position in Alphabet by 1.6% during the first quarter. Grimes & Company Inc. now owns 176,121 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $26,582,000 after acquiring an additional 2,727 shares during the last quarter. Saratoga Research & Investment Management boosted its stake in Alphabet by 19.1% in the first quarter. Saratoga Research & Investment Management now owns 1,001,128 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $151,100,000 after acquiring an additional 160,884 shares in the last quarter. First Bank & Trust grew its holdings in Alphabet by 2.5% in the first quarter. First Bank & Trust now owns 9,694 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,463,000 after purchasing an additional 239 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Baker Ellis Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5.7% during the 1st quarter. Baker Ellis Asset Management LLC now owns 21,355 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,223,000 after purchasing an additional 1,150 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% 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.