Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Earns “Overweight” Rating from Piper Sandler

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reissued by Piper Sandler in a research note issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $200.00 target price on the information services provider’s stock, up from their previous target price of $160.00. Piper Sandler’s price target suggests a potential upside of 16.20% from the company’s current price.

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of other reports. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Susquehanna upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $166.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $141.00 to $168.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday. Five 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $178.32.

Alphabet Trading Up 10.3 %

Alphabet stock traded up $16.11 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $172.11. 31,708,440 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 30,198,473. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.10 and a quick ratio of 2.10. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $147.22 and its 200 day moving average price is $141.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.14 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.67, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet has a 52-week low of $103.54 and a 52-week high of $174.71.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued 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. The business had revenue of $86.31 billion for 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 period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.05 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 6.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 230 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.06, for a total transaction of $35,433.80. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 15,104 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,326,922.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 230 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.06, for a total transaction of $35,433.80. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 15,104 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,326,922.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $157.41, for a total transaction of $3,541,725.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,303,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $362,516,961.51. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 251,339 shares of company stock valued at $36,377,482 in the last three months. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Members Trust Co grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 15.8% in the first quarter. Members Trust Co now owns 3,891 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $587,000 after purchasing an additional 531 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. lifted its position in Alphabet by 53.5% in the first quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. now owns 173,569 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $26,123,000 after buying an additional 60,520 shares during the last quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 6.3% in the first quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 62,711 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,925,000 after buying an additional 3,738 shares during the last quarter. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet in the first quarter worth $62,559,000. Finally, Davies Financial Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet in the first quarter worth $1,761,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.