Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock Price Up 1.1% on Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) rose 1.1% during mid-day trading on Wednesday after Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on the stock from $154.00 to $174.00. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $158.68 and last traded at $157.73. Approximately 4,139,583 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 81% from the average daily volume of 22,167,635 shares. The stock had previously closed at $156.00.

GOOG has been the topic of a number of other reports. Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Raymond James lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $165.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $159.86.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Frances Arnold sold 230 shares of the firm’s 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 sale, the director now directly owns 15,104 shares in the company, valued at $2,326,922.24. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 800 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.56, for a total value of $127,648.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 7,991 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,275,043.96. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 230 shares of Alphabet 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 in the company, valued at $2,326,922.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 228,839 shares of company stock worth $32,835,757 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 61,587.1% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 130,046,253 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $11,539,004,000 after purchasing an additional 129,835,437 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 120,234,117 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,852,868,000 after purchasing an additional 4,348,188 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 11.3% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 95,941,129 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,649,838,000 after purchasing an additional 9,703,425 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 80,246,520 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $11,309,370,000 after purchasing an additional 862,550 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 37.6% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 71,779,112 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,368,961,000 after buying an additional 19,612,974 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.1 %

The firm has a market cap of $1.96 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a current ratio of 2.10. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $146.95 and its 200 day moving average is $141.51.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $86.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $85.28 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 24.01% and a return on equity of 27.22%. Alphabet’s revenue was up 13.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.05 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 6.78 earnings per share 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.