Rosenblatt Securities Lowers Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) to Neutral

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) was downgraded by Rosenblatt Securities from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Briefing.com reports. They currently have a $181.00 price objective on the information services provider’s stock. Rosenblatt Securities’ target price points to a potential downside of 3.14% from the company’s current price.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $165.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $167.86.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of GOOG opened at $186.86 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.31 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.66, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet has a 12 month low of $115.83 and a 12 month high of $187.50. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $173.26 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $154.97. The company has a current ratio of 2.15, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.38. The firm had revenue of $80.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $78.75 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 29.52% and a net margin of 25.90%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.17 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 7.6 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.40, for a total transaction of $3,991,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,213,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $392,588,151.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total value of $508,150.26. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 144,685 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,566,519.45. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.40, for a total value of $3,991,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,213,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $392,588,151.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 146,284 shares of company stock valued at $24,534,393. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Keynote Financial Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the first quarter valued at approximately $748,000. Mosaic Family Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 2.1% during the first quarter. Mosaic Family Wealth Partners LLC now owns 18,452 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,809,000 after purchasing an additional 382 shares during the period. Jackson Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 5.5% during the first quarter. Jackson Wealth Management LLC now owns 41,148 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,265,000 after purchasing an additional 2,131 shares during the period. American Trust grew its holdings in Alphabet by 1.2% during the first quarter. American Trust now owns 9,929 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,512,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the period. Finally, OMC Financial Services LTD bought a new position in Alphabet during the first quarter valued at $502,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.