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

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reiterated by investment analysts at Piper Sandler in a research report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $200.00 price target on the information services provider’s stock, up from their prior price target of $160.00. Piper Sandler’s price target points to a potential upside of 16.20% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts have also issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Alphabet from $160.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Alphabet from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Alphabet from $174.00 to $196.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. JMP Securities lifted their price target on Alphabet from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Alphabet from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $178.32.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL traded up $16.11 during trading on Friday, hitting $172.11. 31,708,440 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 30,198,473. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.14 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.67, a PEG 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. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $147.22 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $141.16. The company has a quick ratio of 2.10, a current ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total transaction of $94,769.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,920 shares in the company, valued at $4,009,032.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.70, for a total value of $2,985,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,332,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $309,548,095.70. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total value of $94,769.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,009,032.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 251,339 shares of company stock worth $36,377,482 over the last three months. 0.88% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. RWQ Financial Management Services Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 8.2% in the 4th quarter. RWQ Financial Management Services Inc. now owns 61,499 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,591,000 after acquiring an additional 4,664 shares during the period. Ballast Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.6% during the 3rd quarter. Ballast Advisors LLC now owns 15,747 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,061,000 after purchasing an additional 1,385 shares during the period. Quantum Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 8.0% during the 3rd quarter. Quantum Financial Advisors LLC now owns 7,623 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $998,000 after purchasing an additional 564 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 4,416,533 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $577,908,000 after purchasing an additional 104,366 shares during the period. Finally, NatWest Group plc boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 239.0% during the 4th quarter. NatWest Group plc now owns 100,793 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $14,080,000 after acquiring an additional 71,057 shares in 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.