Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Rating Lowered to Hold at DZ Bank

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was downgraded by equities research analysts at DZ Bank from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. They currently have a $198.00 target price on the information services provider’s stock. DZ Bank’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 3.49% from the company’s previous close.

GOOGL has been the subject of several other research reports. Bank of America reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. Roth Mkm lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $206.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reduced their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $210.62.

Alphabet Stock Down 7.3 %

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $191.33 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $190.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $174.52. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.34 trillion, a P/E 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 has a 12-month low of $130.66 and a 12-month high of $207.05.

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

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total value of $6,870,532.68. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. This represents a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total value of $3,975,075.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,061,806 shares in the company, valued at approximately $364,259,266.02. This trade represents a 1.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 89,529 shares of company stock worth $16,600,078. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp boosted its position in Alphabet by 0.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 222,555,548 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $36,910,838,000 after purchasing an additional 743,369 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 134,030,679 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $22,154,651,000 after buying an additional 2,626,431 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,559,240,000 after buying an additional 4,567,275 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 1.5% in the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 757,138 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in 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 worth $6,175,106,000 after acquiring an additional 523,416 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.