Wedbush Reiterates Outperform Rating for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reissued by stock analysts at Wedbush in a report released on Thursday,RTT News reports. They presently have a $220.00 price objective on the information services provider’s stock. Wedbush’s target price points to a potential upside of 7.00% from the company’s current price.

Several other analysts have also commented on the stock. 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 report on Wednesday, October 30th. Pivotal Research raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $209.13.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.5 %

GOOG stock opened at $205.60 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $189.70 and its 200-day simple moving average is $175.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.52 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.27, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.99. Alphabet has a 12 month low of $131.55 and a 12 month high of $207.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the director now owns 16,490 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,820,779.40. This trade represents a 2.60 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total transaction of $6,870,532.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares in the company, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. This represents a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 121,630 shares of company stock worth $22,258,133 in the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Weiss Asset Management LP purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth about $33,000. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 87.3% in the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Maryland Capital Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 33.0% in the 4th quarter. Maryland Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 266 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

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.