Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Up 1.1% Following Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s stock price was up 1.1% during trading on Wednesday after Truist Financial raised their price target on the stock from $158.00 to $170.00. Truist Financial currently has a buy rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $157.08 and last traded at $156.13. Approximately 5,858,530 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 80% from the average daily volume of 30,020,330 shares. The stock had previously closed at $154.40.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on GOOGL. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $166.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Roth Mkm reduced their price target on Alphabet from $166.00 to $164.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Rosenblatt Securities dropped their price objective on Alphabet from $174.00 to $172.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. KeyCorp increased their price target on Alphabet from $153.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $144.00 to $141.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $157.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $157.41, for a total value of $3,541,725.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,303,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $362,516,961.51. The transaction was disclosed in a legal 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 business’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 transaction of $508,150.26. Following 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $157.41, for a total transaction of $3,541,725.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,303,011 shares in the company, valued at $362,516,961.51. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 251,339 shares of company stock worth $36,377,482 in the last quarter. 0.88% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 1,919.4% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 477,035,902 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $45,628,484,000 after acquiring an additional 453,413,389 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1,900.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 217,154,306 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $20,770,809,000 after purchasing an additional 206,300,042 shares during the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 111,197.8% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 170,420,243 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,036,178,000 after purchasing an additional 170,267,122 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $15,441,917,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Alphabet by 1,759.2% during the 3rd quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 116,116,066 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $11,106,502,000 after buying an additional 109,870,525 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.7 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.10 and a quick ratio of 2.10. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $145.95 and a 200-day simple moving average of $140.29. The firm has a market cap of $1.93 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.81, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $86.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $70.77 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 24.01% and a return on equity of 27.22%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.05 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 6.78 EPS for the current fiscal 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.