Wall Street Zen Upgrades Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) to Buy

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was upgraded by research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Saturday.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Melius Research upped their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $255.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. Needham & Company LLC upped their price objective on Alphabet from $260.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price objective on Alphabet from $270.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $290.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have given a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $302.20.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL stock opened at $281.31 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.40 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $291.59. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $244.00 and its 200 day simple moving average is $200.31.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. The business had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 36.08% and a net margin of 32.23%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.15, for a total value of $8,129,875.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,369,619 shares in the company, valued at $592,760,192.85. This represents a 1.35% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.05, for a total value of $694,638.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 14,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,629,725.80. This trade represents a 16.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 222,330 shares of company stock worth $51,167,625 over the last three months. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter valued at about $21,944,208,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter valued at about $4,317,606,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 17,667.7% during the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 15,245,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,686,640,000 after purchasing an additional 15,159,273 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $78,839,544,000 after purchasing an additional 14,307,345 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 51.7% during the second quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 31,817,684 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,607,232,000 after purchasing an additional 10,843,853 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.