Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Given New $196.00 Price Target at Stifel Nicolaus

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price objective lifted by stock analysts at Stifel Nicolaus from $174.00 to $196.00 in a report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the information services provider’s stock. Stifel Nicolaus’ price objective points to a potential upside of 13.88% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on GOOGL. Wolfe Research lifted their target price on Alphabet from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Barclays lifted their target price on Alphabet from $173.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their target price on Alphabet from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $165.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Redburn Atlantic boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $150.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $178.32.

Alphabet Trading Up 10.3 %

Alphabet stock traded up $16.11 during trading on Friday, reaching $172.11. 31,708,440 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 30,198,473. Alphabet has a 52-week low of $103.54 and a 52-week high of $174.71. The company 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. 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 stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $147.22 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $141.16.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $86.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $70.77 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.05 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet will post 6.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owns 2,332,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $309,548,095.70. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.70, for a total transaction of $2,985,750.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,332,691 shares in the company, valued at approximately $309,548,095.70. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Ruth Porat sold 48,077 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 1,777,106 shares in the company, valued at approximately $243,854,485.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 251,339 shares of company stock valued at $36,377,482. Corporate insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $15,441,917,000. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 5.6% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 227,317,469 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $29,746,764,000 after acquiring an additional 12,070,681 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 493,810,251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $68,980,354,000 after acquiring an additional 6,374,756 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 39,754.9% in the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 6,025,667 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $841,725,000 after acquiring an additional 6,010,548 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 4,894.1% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 5,445,396 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,606,670,000 after acquiring an additional 5,336,359 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% 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.