Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Up 1.1% on Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s share price traded up 1.1% on Tuesday after KeyCorp raised their price target on the stock from $165.00 to $175.00. KeyCorp currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $158.39 and last traded at $157.93. 5,806,971 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 80% from the average session volume of 29,767,066 shares. The stock had previously closed at $156.28.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Redburn Atlantic upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Susquehanna upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $160.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Alphabet from $144.00 to $141.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $185.00 target price (up previously from $178.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Five investment 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $158.71.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 230 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.06, for a total transaction of $35,433.80. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 15,104 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,326,922.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 230 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.06, for a total transaction of $35,433.80. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 15,104 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,326,922.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total transaction of $94,769.40. Following the completion of the transaction, 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. Insiders sold 251,339 shares of company stock valued at $36,377,482 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 493,810,251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $68,980,354,000 after acquiring an additional 6,374,756 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 5.6% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 227,317,469 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $29,746,764,000 after acquiring an additional 12,070,681 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $15,441,917,000. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 67,684,197 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,857,154,000 after buying an additional 2,416,328 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,220,857 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,316,902,000 after buying an additional 1,472,043 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.5 %

The business’s 50 day moving average price is $146.96 and its 200-day moving average price is $141.06. 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 company has a market cap of $1.98 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.44, a PEG ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. Alphabet had a net margin of 24.01% and a return on equity of 27.22%. The company had revenue of $86.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $70.77 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.05 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 6.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.