Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock Price Up 2% After Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s stock price was up 2% on Friday after Oppenheimer raised their price target on the stock from $215.00 to $225.00. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $206.64 and last traded at $206.70. Approximately 4,388,619 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 72% from the average daily volume of 15,573,267 shares. The stock had previously closed at $202.63.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citizens Jmp downgraded Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $206.69.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total transaction of $75,437.46. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 16,490 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,820,779.40. The trade was a 2.60 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $197.55, for a total value of $559,856.70. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,085,531.55. This trade represents a 12.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 121,630 shares of company stock worth $22,258,133 over the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Weiss Asset Management LP bought a new position in Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $25,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet in the third quarter valued at about $33,000. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 87.3% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Maryland Capital Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 33.0% during the fourth quarter. Maryland Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 266 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $189.70 and a 200 day moving average price of $175.54. The company has a market cap of $2.53 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.99.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The business’s revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.55 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.