Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price Expected to Rise, BMO Capital Markets Analyst Says

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its target price increased by BMO Capital Markets from $340.00 to $343.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday,MarketScreener reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the information services provider’s stock. BMO Capital Markets’ target price would suggest a potential upside of 11.28% from the stock’s previous close.

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of other research reports. New Street Research increased their price objective on Alphabet from $275.00 to $295.00 in a report on Friday, October 24th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $365.00 price target (up from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $240.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 5th. DZ Bank reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have given a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $315.18.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $308.22 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $284.30 and its 200 day simple moving average is $230.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.72 trillion, a P/E ratio of 30.40, a P/E/G ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.07. Alphabet has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $328.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.75.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. The business had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 35.00%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $319.50, for a total value of $10,383,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,272,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $725,942,020.50. This trade represents a 1.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.66, for a total value of $32,401.32. Following the transaction, the director owned 18,104 shares in the company, valued at $5,750,916.64. This trade represents a 0.56% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 222,750 shares of company stock worth $60,496,098 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 516,559,609 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $91,033,300,000 after purchasing an additional 6,733,278 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.8% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $40,524,841,000 after acquiring an additional 4,008,374 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 3.1% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 141,615,284 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $24,857,017,000 after purchasing an additional 4,224,497 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at about $21,944,208,000. Finally, Capital World Investors increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 28.0% during the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,910,542,000 after purchasing an additional 11,605,785 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is 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.