Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Buy Rating Reaffirmed at Westpark Capital

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by equities research analysts at Westpark Capital in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $210.00 price objective on the information services provider’s stock. Westpark Capital’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 38.73% from the company’s previous close.

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. DA Davidson cut their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Rosenblatt Securities dropped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $205.00 to $189.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 25th. Wedbush set a $190.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $199.75.

Alphabet Trading Down 7.3 %

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $151.38 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $159.54 and a 200 day moving average price of $175.25. The firm has a market cap of $1.84 trillion, a PE ratio of 18.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,824 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $187.43, for a total transaction of $529,302.32. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,024 shares in the company, valued at $2,815,948.32. This represents a 15.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 29,066 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.89, for a total value of $5,374,012.74. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 272,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,376,238.74. This represents a 9.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 146,824 shares of company stock valued at $25,086,603 over the last 90 days. 11.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $47,025,322,000 after purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $18,672,198,000 after acquiring an additional 7,574,417 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in Alphabet by 16.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,635,878,000 after purchasing an additional 10,037,685 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 17.0% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,178,470,000 after purchasing an additional 10,135,430 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.