Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Receives “Outperform” Rating from Wedbush

Wedbush reissued their outperform rating on shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) in a report issued on Thursday,RTT News reports. They currently have a $220.00 price objective on the information services provider’s stock.

GOOG has been the topic of several other research reports. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays raised their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $206.69.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOG opened at $202.63 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $189.03 and a 200 day moving average price of $175.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Alphabet has a 1 year low of $131.55 and a 1 year high of $203.84. The stock has a market cap of $2.48 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.87, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.99.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.55 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total value of $75,437.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 16,490 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,820,779.40. This represents a 2.60 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total transaction of $550,702.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,847 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,468,029.04. The trade was a 13.70 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 121,630 shares of company stock worth $22,258,133. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Opes Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Opes Wealth Management LLC now owns 16,425 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,128,000 after buying an additional 527 shares in the last quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. raised its stake in Alphabet by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 31,500 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,999,000 after acquiring an additional 250 shares in the last quarter. MOKAN Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $3,842,000. Meixler Investment Management Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 7.9% in the 4th quarter. Meixler Investment Management Ltd. now owns 1,638 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $312,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Waypoint Wealth Partners Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Waypoint Wealth Partners Inc. now owns 16,758 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,191,000 after purchasing an additional 658 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

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.