Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Downgraded to “Hold” Rating by Citizens Jmp

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) was downgraded by investment analysts at Citizens Jmp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Pivotal Research lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. DA Davidson upgraded Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, UBS Group increased 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. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $200.56.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $190.63 on Thursday. Alphabet has a twelve month low of $131.55 and a twelve month high of $202.88. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $180.72 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $173.79. The firm has a market cap of $2.33 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.02.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.55 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Alphabet will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total value of $75,437.46. Following the sale, the director now owns 16,490 shares in the company, valued at $2,820,779.40. This represents a 2.60 % 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. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.23, for a total value of $473,929.82. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 26,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,406,343.27. This represents a 9.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 154,519 shares of company stock worth $27,734,316 over the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Weiss Asset Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 9,200.0% in the second quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 186 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 184 shares in the last quarter. HWG Holdings LP acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 87.3% during the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

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.