Stifel Nicolaus Increases Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Price Target to $174.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) had its price target boosted by Stifel Nicolaus from $154.00 to $174.00 in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the information services provider’s stock.

GOOG has been the subject of several other reports. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a positive rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Raymond James raised their price objective on Alphabet from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an overweight rating and issued a $165.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of Buy and an average price target of $159.86.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.4 %

Alphabet stock opened at $157.46 on Tuesday. Alphabet has a fifty-two week low of $103.27 and a fifty-two week high of $161.70. 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 has a market capitalization of $1.96 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.15, a PEG ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.05. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $147.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $141.72.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $86.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $85.28 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 27.22% and a net margin of 24.01%. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.05 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 6.78 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Ruth Porat sold 48,077 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.22, for a total transaction of $6,597,125.94. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 1,777,106 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $243,854,485.32. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CFO Ruth Porat sold 48,077 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.22, for a total value of $6,597,125.94. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 1,777,106 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $243,854,485.32. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 230 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.06, for a total value of $35,433.80. Following the sale, the director now owns 15,104 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,326,922.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 251,339 shares of company stock worth $36,377,482 in the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Tandem Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter worth $25,000. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Partnership Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth $26,000. HWG Holdings LP bought a new position in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. Finally, Equitec Proprietary Markets LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by 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.