Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Rating Reaffirmed by Piper Sandler

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reiterated by research analysts at Piper Sandler in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $200.00 target price on the information services provider’s stock, up from their prior target price of $160.00. Piper Sandler’s price objective points to a potential upside of 16.31% from the stock’s previous close.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $155.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Redburn Atlantic upped their target price on Alphabet from $150.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on Alphabet from $165.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday. Needham & Company LLC upped their target price on Alphabet from $160.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Alphabet from $174.00 to $196.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $187.82.

Alphabet Stock Up 10.2 %

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $171.95 on Friday. Alphabet has a 1-year low of $103.54 and a 1-year high of $174.71. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $147.85 and its 200 day moving average price is $141.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.10 and a quick ratio of 2.10. The company has a market cap of $2.14 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $86.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $70.77 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.01% and a net margin of 25.90%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.05 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Alphabet will post 6.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.29, for a total value of $3,291,525.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,377,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $347,832,416.39. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, Director Frances Arnold sold 230 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.06, for a total value of $35,433.80. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 15,104 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,326,922.24. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.29, for a total value of $3,291,525.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,377,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $347,832,416.39. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 253,439 shares of company stock valued at $36,746,578. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Chico Wealth RIA acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at $330,000. Summit Global Investments grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 67.7% in the third quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 241,463 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $31,598,000 after buying an additional 97,466 shares in the last quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 18.1% in the third quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,140 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $934,000 after buying an additional 1,096 shares in the last quarter. Sunflower Bank N.A. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 6.3% in the third quarter. Sunflower Bank N.A. now owns 5,951 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $779,000 after buying an additional 353 shares in the last quarter. Finally, David J Yvars Group grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 10.3% in the third quarter. David J Yvars Group now owns 4,170 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $546,000 after buying an additional 390 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.