Morgan Stanley Increases Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target to $210.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price target lifted by stock analysts at Morgan Stanley from $195.00 to $210.00 in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “overweight” rating on the information services provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 14.76% from the company’s previous close.

GOOGL has been the subject of several other reports. UBS Group raised their target price on Alphabet from $150.00 to $166.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Susquehanna lifted their price target on Alphabet from $170.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on Alphabet from $165.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $196.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. Finally, Loop Capital reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $170.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 3rd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-seven have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $200.88.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.7 %

NASDAQ GOOGL traded up $1.32 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $182.99. The company had a trading volume of 15,149,289 shares, compared to its average volume of 27,640,436. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $179.13 and its 200 day moving average is $159.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.15 and a quick ratio of 2.15. The company has a market capitalization of $2.26 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.02, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet has a fifty-two week low of $120.21 and a fifty-two week high of $191.75.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.49 by $0.40. The company had revenue of $80.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $66.04 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 29.52% and a net margin of 25.90%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.17 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 7.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 2,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.76, for a total transaction of $369,096.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 5,891 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,035,402.16. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 2,100 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.76, for a total value of $369,096.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 5,891 shares in the company, valued at $1,035,402.16. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.67, for a total transaction of $113,668.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,284 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,880,764.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 124,488 shares of company stock valued at $21,866,705 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Etesian Wealth Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Etesian Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 7,823 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,097,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Cooper Financial Group lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 7.6% in the 4th quarter. Cooper Financial Group now owns 49,635 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,934,000 after purchasing an additional 3,491 shares during the last quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 12.2% in the 4th quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC now owns 13,285 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,856,000 after purchasing an additional 1,445 shares during the last quarter. Ariose Capital Management Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $3,073,000. Finally, LVW Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. LVW Advisors LLC now owns 27,861 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,892,000 after purchasing an additional 1,183 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.