Jefferies Financial Group Raises Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target to $200.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its target price hoisted by equities research analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from $180.00 to $200.00 in a research note issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the information services provider’s stock. Jefferies Financial Group’s target price suggests a potential upside of 16.42% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on GOOGL. Truist Financial upped their target price on Alphabet from $158.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $185.00 target price (up from $178.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $155.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on Alphabet from $160.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Roth Mkm lowered their price target on Alphabet from $166.00 to $164.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $178.32.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL traded up $15.79 during trading on Friday, reaching $171.79. 35,913,944 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 30,280,404. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $147.22 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $141.16. 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 company has a market capitalization of $2.14 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.48, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet has a 1 year low of $103.54 and a 1 year high of $174.71.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. Alphabet had a return on equity of 27.22% and a net margin of 24.01%. The company had revenue of $86.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $70.77 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.05 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 6.78 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 17th. The stock was 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Alphabet news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total transaction of $508,150.26. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 144,685 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,566,519.45. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $157.41, for a total value of $3,541,725.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,303,011 shares in the company, valued at $362,516,961.51. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 251,339 shares of company stock valued at $36,377,482 over the last three months. 0.88% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Chico Wealth RIA bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at approximately $330,000. Summit Global Investments raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 67.7% in the third quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 241,463 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $31,598,000 after acquiring an additional 97,466 shares during the last quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 18.1% in the third quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,140 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $934,000 after acquiring an additional 1,096 shares during the last quarter. Sunflower Bank N.A. raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 6.3% in the third quarter. Sunflower Bank N.A. now owns 5,951 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $779,000 after acquiring an additional 353 shares during the last quarter. Finally, David J Yvars Group raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 10.3% in the third quarter. David J Yvars Group now owns 4,170 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $546,000 after acquiring an additional 390 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

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.