Royal Bank of Canada Increases Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target to $200.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its target price upped by analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $155.00 to $200.00 in a report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the information services provider’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price target points to a potential upside of 16.31% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price target on Alphabet from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Alphabet from $141.00 to $168.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Alphabet from $165.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on Alphabet from $165.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on Alphabet from $150.00 to $166.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $187.82.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL opened at $171.95 on Friday. Alphabet has a 12-month low of $103.54 and a 12-month high of $174.71. The stock has a market cap of $2.14 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.37, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.05. The business has a 50 day moving average of $147.85 and a 200-day moving average of $141.42. The company has a quick ratio of 2.10, a current ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.01% and a net margin of 25.90%. The company had revenue of $86.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $70.77 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.05 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet will post 6.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.70, for a total value of $2,985,750.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,332,691 shares in the company, valued at approximately $309,548,095.70. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 2,100 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.76, for a total value of $369,096.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 5,891 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,035,402.16. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.70, for a total value of $2,985,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,332,691 shares in the company, valued at approximately $309,548,095.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 253,439 shares of company stock valued at $36,746,578 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. RWQ Financial Management Services Inc. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 8.2% during the 4th quarter. RWQ Financial Management Services Inc. now owns 61,499 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,591,000 after purchasing an additional 4,664 shares in the last quarter. Ballast Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.6% during the 3rd quarter. Ballast Advisors LLC now owns 15,747 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,061,000 after purchasing an additional 1,385 shares in the last quarter. Quantum Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 8.0% during the 3rd quarter. Quantum Financial Advisors LLC now owns 7,623 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $998,000 after purchasing an additional 564 shares in the last quarter. Colton Groome Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Colton Groome Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,700 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $377,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 4,416,533 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $577,908,000 after purchasing an additional 104,366 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% 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.