Piper Sandler Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its target price lowered by research analysts at Piper Sandler from $208.00 to $185.00 in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “overweight” rating on the information services provider’s stock. Piper Sandler’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 18.54% from the company’s current price.

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of other reports. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. DA Davidson raised their target price on Alphabet from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Alphabet from $184.00 to $167.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $207.38.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL traded down $2.64 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $156.07. The stock had a trading volume of 10,105,055 shares, compared to its average volume of 28,010,388. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $170.47 and its 200 day moving average is $176.32. Alphabet has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $207.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.90 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.39, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total transaction of $33,106.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares in the company, valued at $1,293,285.89. This represents a 2.50 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total transaction of $104,537.09. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares in the company, valued at $2,377,014.99. This trade represents a 4.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 119,797 shares of company stock worth $21,089,470. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Crestmont Private Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 12.1% in the first quarter. Crestmont Private Wealth LLC now owns 5,005 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $774,000 after acquiring an additional 540 shares during the last quarter. Rialto Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 6.7% in the first quarter. Rialto Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,127 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $329,000 after acquiring an additional 133 shares during the last quarter. Kure Advisory LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the first quarter worth about $205,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.2% in the first quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 5,438 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $817,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Smith Anglin Financial LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 11.2% in the first quarter. Smith Anglin Financial LLC now owns 7,464 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,154,000 after acquiring an additional 753 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently 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.