Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock Price Up 1.3% Following Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) shot up 1.3% during mid-day trading on Thursday after Oppenheimer raised their price target on the stock from $215.00 to $225.00. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $203.24 and last traded at $199.78. 4,730,313 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 70% from the average session volume of 15,635,010 shares. The stock had previously closed at $197.18.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on GOOG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Pivotal Research upped their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $209.13.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total value of $3,239,868.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 43,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,471,620.22. This represents a 27.66 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total transaction of $232,950.47. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 23,515 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,007,191.15. The trade was a 5.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 121,630 shares of company stock valued at $22,258,133. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Czech National Bank boosted its position in Alphabet by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 978,396 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $163,578,000 after buying an additional 47,171 shares during the last quarter. Unique Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.3% during the third quarter. Unique Wealth LLC now owns 3,375 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $564,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares during the last quarter. Meritas Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.6% during the third quarter. Meritas Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,516 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $253,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Marotta Asset Management lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 44.4% during the third quarter. Marotta Asset Management now owns 1,821 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $304,000 after purchasing an additional 560 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Farmers Trust Co. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% during the third quarter. Farmers Trust Co. now owns 2,872 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $480,000 after purchasing an additional 418 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.5 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $189.70 and its 200 day moving average price is $175.54. The firm has a market cap of $2.52 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.27, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.99.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued 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 business had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.39 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.55 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.