Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading 1.7% Higher Following Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s stock price was up 1.7% on Tuesday after Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on the stock from $210.00 to $225.00. Needham & Company LLC currently has a buy rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $195.40 and last traded at $195.15. Approximately 7,573,527 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 68% from the average daily volume of 24,000,145 shares. The stock had previously closed at $191.81.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Wolfe Research boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Citizens Jmp downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $205.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $209.82.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total transaction of $232,950.47. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 23,515 shares in the company, valued at $4,007,191.15. This trade represents a 5.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total value of $6,870,532.68. Following the transaction, the director now owns 282,832 shares in the company, valued at $52,329,576.64. This trade represents a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 122,887 shares of company stock worth $22,470,464. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 222,555,548 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $36,910,838,000 after buying an additional 743,369 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 134,030,679 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,154,651,000 after buying an additional 2,626,431 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in Alphabet by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,559,240,000 after buying an additional 4,567,275 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 49,857,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,268,933,000 after buying an additional 1,237,385 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 37,233,079 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,175,106,000 after purchasing an additional 523,416 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $187.14 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $173.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.39 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.85 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.55 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 EPS 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.