Scotiabank Raises Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Price Target to $240.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) had its price objective lifted by investment analysts at Scotiabank from $212.00 to $240.00 in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “sector outperform” rating on the information services provider’s stock. Scotiabank’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 18.87% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other research firms have also recently weighed in on GOOG. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $202.31.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of GOOG traded up $2.32 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $201.90. The company had a trading volume of 12,618,487 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,966,282. Alphabet has a 1 year low of $131.55 and a 1 year high of $203.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.47 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $187.39 and its 200-day simple moving average is $175.23.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.78, for a total value of $1,898,190.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 330,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $59,741,643.48. This represents a 3.08 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.42, for a total value of $234,331.14. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 26,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,516,745.58. The trade was a 4.93 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 133,387 shares of company stock valued at $24,368,654. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Weiss Asset Management LP acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth about $33,000. HWG Holdings LP purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 87.3% during the 3rd 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 during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

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.