Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Upgraded by JMP Securities to Market Outperform Rating

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was upgraded by equities researchers at JMP Securities from a “market perform” rating to a “market outperform” rating in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $220.00 price target on the information services provider’s stock. JMP Securities’ target price points to a potential upside of 23.23% from the company’s current price.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the company. BNP Paribas Exane restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $172.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Alphabet from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Citigroup restated a “buy” rating and issued a $203.00 price target (up from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $199.95.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $178.53 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $207.05. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $166.45 and a 200-day moving average of $174.38. The company has a market capitalization of $2.17 trillion, a P/E ratio of 19.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.68, for a total transaction of $5,742,100.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,555,196 shares in the company, valued at $451,452,029.28. The trade was a 1.26% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $105,000.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 6,813 shares in the company, valued at $1,192,275. This represents a 8.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 216,195 shares of company stock valued at $35,764,898. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $24,383,677,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet during the 1st quarter worth $4,317,606,000. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $47,025,322,000 after buying an additional 22,100,902 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 16,993.2% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,483,898,000 after buying an additional 15,968,487 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $78,839,544,000 after buying an additional 14,307,345 shares during 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.