Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Trading Up 1.3% Following Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s stock price traded up 1.3% on Thursday after Oppenheimer raised their price target on the stock from $215.00 to $225.00. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $203.24 and last traded at $199.78. 4,730,313 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 70% from the average session volume of 15,635,010 shares. The stock had previously closed at $197.18.

A number of other research firms also recently weighed in on GOOG. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Citizens Jmp cut shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Pivotal Research upped their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $205.80.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total transaction of $75,437.46. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 16,490 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,820,779.40. This trade represents a 2.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 26,349 shares in the company, 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. Insiders sold a total of 122,997 shares of company stock worth $22,492,464 in the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Weiss Asset Management LP acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth $33,000. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. lifted its position in 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 valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Maryland Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in 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 period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $189.03 and a 200-day simple moving average of $175.35. The stock has a market cap of $2.48 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.88, 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 (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.55 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current 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.