Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Receives $186.90 Average Target Price from Brokerages

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the nineteen analysts that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $200.56.

A number of brokerages have issued reports on GOOG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Scotiabank began coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, October 11th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 price target on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.00, for a total value of $114,576.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 31,334 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,264,112. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.00, for a total value of $114,576.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 31,334 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,264,112. This trade represents a 0.00 % 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 John L. Hennessy sold 700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.00, for a total value of $115,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 29,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,838,460. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 220,426 shares of company stock worth $35,993,340 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Colonial River Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5.3% during the second quarter. Colonial River Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,126 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $390,000 after acquiring an additional 107 shares in the last quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.6% during the first quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 187,229 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $28,508,000 after buying an additional 8,201 shares during the last quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.6% during the second quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 11,366 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,097,000 after buying an additional 498 shares during the last quarter. Alliance Wealth Management Group boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 93.6% during the first quarter. Alliance Wealth Management Group now owns 3,910 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $595,000 after buying an additional 1,890 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.6% during the third quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 2,628,176 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $439,405,000 after buying an additional 115,716 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOG opened at $176.14 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $2.18 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.02, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.04. Alphabet has a 1-year low of $123.93 and a 1-year high of $193.31. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $163.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $170.30. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.55 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 7.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.