Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Given New $195.00 Price Target at Morgan Stanley

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its target price upped by equities researchers at Morgan Stanley from $165.00 to $195.00 in a report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “overweight” rating on the information services provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 25.00% from the company’s current price.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on GOOGL. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $158.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $160.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $160.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $175.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $173.00.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL stock opened at $156.00 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $147.22 and a 200-day moving average price of $141.16. Alphabet has a 52-week low of $102.63 and a 52-week high of $160.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.94 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.90, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a current ratio of 2.10.

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. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 6.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total value of $94,769.40. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 27,920 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,009,032.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,332,691 shares in the company, valued at approximately $309,548,095.70. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total transaction of $94,769.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 27,920 shares in the company, valued at $4,009,032.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 251,339 shares of company stock worth $36,377,482 in the last 90 days. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Tributary Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the 1st quarter valued at about $30,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. Meritage Group LP grew its holdings in Alphabet by 1,061.5% during the 3rd quarter. Meritage Group LP now owns 302 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 276 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Macroview Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 165.8% in the 3rd quarter. Macroview Investment Management LLC now owns 319 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 199 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently 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.