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

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGGet Free Report) had its target price boosted by research analysts at Scotiabank from $212.00 to $240.00 in a research report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “sector outperform” rating on the information services provider’s stock. Scotiabank’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 18.87% from the company’s previous close.

GOOG has been the topic of several other research reports. Pivotal Research boosted their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Citizens Jmp cut Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Citigroup boosted their price target 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, Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.13.

Read Our Latest Research Report on GOOG

Alphabet Trading Up 1.2 %

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $201.90 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.47 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.78, a PEG 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. Alphabet has a 1 year low of $131.55 and a 1 year high of $203.84. The business has a fifty day moving average of $187.95 and a 200-day moving average of $175.31.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGGet Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.55 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Alphabet will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total value of $75,437.46. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 16,490 shares in the company, valued at $2,820,779.40. This represents a 2.60 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $197.55, for a total transaction of $559,856.70. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 20,681 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,085,531.55. This represents a 12.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 133,387 shares of company stock worth $24,368,654. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 5.2% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 114,802,133 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $19,193,768,000 after acquiring an additional 5,655,022 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 103,557,486 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $17,247,208,000 after purchasing an additional 259,213 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 10.3% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 33,334,082 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,573,125,000 after purchasing an additional 3,113,395 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 9.1% in the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 15,424,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,578,793,000 after purchasing an additional 1,291,274 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 2.5% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,024,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,843,149,000 after buying an additional 264,962 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Alphabet

(Get Free Report)

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.

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