Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target Raised to $195.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) had its target price raised by Piper Sandler from $185.00 to $195.00 in a note issued to investors on Friday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage presently has an "overweight" rating on the information services provider's stock. Piper Sandler's target price indicates a potential upside of 20.40% from the company's previous close.

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on GOOGL. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Truist Financial decreased their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Westpark Capital raised Alphabet to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $178.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $173.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $199.03.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.7 %

Shares of Alphabet stock traded up $2.68 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $161.96. 55,957,898 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 28,290,487. The stock has a market cap of $1.97 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.12, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a 50 day moving average of $162.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $175.52. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.89 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 1,340 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,606,723.84. This trade represents a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,690 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.51, for a total value of $3,281,671.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 43,111 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,997,521.61. This trade represents a 29.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 148,163 shares of company stock worth $25,361,647. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $24,383,677,000. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $47,025,322,000 after acquiring an additional 22,100,902 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 16,993.2% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,483,898,000 after acquiring an additional 15,968,487 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $13,178,470,000 after acquiring an additional 10,135,430 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 16.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $13,635,878,000 after purchasing an additional 10,037,685 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.