Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Price Target Raised to $240.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) had its price target hoisted by equities researchers at Scotiabank from $212.00 to $240.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “sector outperform” rating on the information services provider’s stock. Scotiabank’s price target indicates a potential upside of 18.87% from the company’s current price.

Several other research analysts have also commented on the stock. Pivotal Research boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citizens Jmp cut Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $202.31.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.2 %

Alphabet stock traded up $2.32 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $201.90. 12,618,487 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 15,966,282. Alphabet has a 12 month low of $131.55 and a 12 month high of $203.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. The company has a market cap of $2.47 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.99. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $187.39 and a two-hundred day moving average of $175.23.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. Alphabet’s revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.55 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Alphabet will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.36, for a total value of $3,990,600.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,084,306 shares in the company, valued at $369,672,512.16. The trade was a 1.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total value of $550,702.88. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,468,029.04. This represents a 13.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 133,387 shares of company stock valued at $24,368,654 over the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Weiss Asset Management LP acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at $33,000. HWG Holdings LP acquired a new position in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 87.3% during the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% 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.