Wedbush Reaffirms Outperform Rating for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reiterated by equities researchers at Wedbush in a research note issued on Thursday,RTT News reports. They currently have a $220.00 target price on the information services provider’s stock. Wedbush’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 7.00% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other research analysts have also commented on GOOG. Phillip Securities raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Pivotal Research lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $209.13.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.5 %

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $205.60 on Thursday. Alphabet has a one year low of $131.55 and a one year high of $207.08. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $189.70 and a 200-day simple moving average of $175.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.52 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.99.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.55 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total value of $550,702.88. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,847 shares in the company, valued at $3,468,029.04. The trade was a 13.70 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.80, for a total transaction of $284,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 21,824 shares in the company, valued at $4,142,195.20. The trade was a 6.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 121,630 shares of company stock worth $22,258,133 in the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. M&G PLC purchased a new position in Alphabet during the third quarter valued at approximately $2,240,000. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 14.4% during the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 116,776 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $19,642,000 after purchasing an additional 14,738 shares in the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 1.4% during the third quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 301,980 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $50,488,000 after purchasing an additional 4,292 shares in the last quarter. Requisite Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $927,000. Finally, Stevens Capital Management LP grew its position in Alphabet by 172.9% during the third quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP now owns 91,237 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $15,254,000 after purchasing an additional 57,810 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

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.