Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Reaches New 52-Week High – What’s Next?

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $260.48 and last traded at $261.69, with a volume of 3452569 shares. The stock had previously closed at $253.73.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on GOOG shares. Mizuho upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 29th. Oppenheimer set a $300.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Scotiabank restated an “outperform” rating and set a $310.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Finally, Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $249.68.

Alphabet Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $3.15 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.74, a P/E/G ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.00. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $237.33 and its 200 day moving average is $196.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.67 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. The firm’s revenue was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.00, for a total transaction of $680,610.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 17,293 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,236,785. This represents a 13.84% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.50, for a total transaction of $8,108,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,397,392 shares in the company, valued at $598,149,304. This represents a 1.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 246,150 shares of company stock worth $55,805,379. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Alphabet by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 416,753,033 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $73,927,821,000 after acquiring an additional 5,182,111 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in Alphabet by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 188,914,125 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $33,511,477,000 after acquiring an additional 2,428,266 shares in the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 580,897.4% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 135,087,705 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $23,963,208,000 after acquiring an additional 135,064,454 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 107,760,033 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,022,926,000 after acquiring an additional 441,177 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.9% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $15,971,861,000 after purchasing an additional 9,243,959 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by 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.