Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Announces Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.03 EPS

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) released its earnings results on Tuesday. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03, Zacks reports. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL traded up $5.15 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $206.38. 37,593,455 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 25,590,535. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95. Alphabet has a 1 year low of $130.66 and a 1 year high of $207.05. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $189.64 and its 200-day simple moving average is $174.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.53 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.99.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.36, for a total value of $3,990,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,084,306 shares in the company, valued at approximately $369,672,512.16. This represents a 1.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total value of $6,870,532.68. Following the sale, the director now owns 282,832 shares in the company, valued at $52,329,576.64. This trade represents a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 122,529 shares of company stock valued at $22,453,483 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Robert W. Baird reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $205.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. China Renaissance upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Scotiabank upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Nine 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. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $211.00.

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.