Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock Price Up 0.6%

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s stock price shot up 0.6% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $157.92 and last traded at $157.80. 3,994,063 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 82% from the average session volume of 22,088,027 shares. The stock had previously closed at $156.88.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on GOOG. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $165.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Raymond James raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $159.86.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.7 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a current ratio of 2.10. The company has a market capitalization of $1.96 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.05. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $147.15 and its 200-day simple moving average is $141.61.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share (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 $85.28 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 24.01% and a return on equity of 27.22%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 13.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.05 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 6.78 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total transaction of $508,150.26. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 144,685 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,566,519.45. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $157.41, for a total transaction of $3,541,725.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,303,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $362,516,961.51. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total transaction of $508,150.26. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 144,685 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,566,519.45. 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. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 61,587.1% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 130,046,253 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $11,539,004,000 after purchasing an additional 129,835,437 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in Alphabet by 1,807.4% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 57,069,444 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,487,226,000 after acquiring an additional 54,077,519 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $3,059,614,000. Morgan Stanley increased its position in Alphabet by 37.6% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 71,779,112 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,368,961,000 after acquiring an additional 19,612,974 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Alphabet by 11.3% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 95,941,129 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,649,838,000 after acquiring an additional 9,703,425 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is 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.