Analysts Set Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Target Price at $209.82

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) have earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the forty-two research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, twenty-nine have issued a buy recommendation and four have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $210.95.

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Wedbush lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday. Wolfe Research lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Robert W. Baird restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $205.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $191.33 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $190.39 and a 200 day moving average of $174.40. Alphabet has a 52 week low of $130.66 and a 52 week high of $207.05. The company has a market cap of $2.34 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.38, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,606,723.84. This trade represents a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total transaction of $6,870,532.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares in the company, valued at $52,329,576.64. This trade represents a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 89,529 shares of company stock worth $16,600,078. 11.55% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 222,555,548 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $36,910,838,000 after buying an additional 743,369 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 2.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 134,030,679 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $22,154,651,000 after acquiring an additional 2,626,431 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Alphabet by 7.7% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,559,240,000 after acquiring an additional 4,567,275 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 50,615,038 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $9,581,427,000 after purchasing an additional 757,138 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 37,233,079 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,175,106,000 after purchasing an additional 523,416 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Company Profile

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.