Sanford C. Bernstein Increases Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target to $185.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price objective raised by investment analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein from $180.00 to $185.00 in a report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “market perform” rating on the information services provider’s stock. Sanford C. Bernstein’s target price suggests a potential upside of 4.67% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other analysts also recently commented on GOOGL. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $217.00 price objective (up previously from $215.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday. Scotiabank upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Alphabet from $204.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $205.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $205.00.

Alphabet Trading Up 4.2 %

Shares of GOOGL stock traded up $7.06 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $176.74. The company had a trading volume of 54,185,480 shares, compared to its average volume of 27,071,035. The company has a 50 day moving average of $162.00 and a 200 day moving average of $168.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 2.08. The firm has a market cap of $2.18 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.04. Alphabet has a 1-year low of $122.68 and a 1-year high of $191.75.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.55 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 7.65 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.00, for a total value of $114,576.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 31,334 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,264,112. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.30, for a total transaction of $3,741,750.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,106,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $350,361,837.80. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.00, for a total transaction of $114,576.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 31,334 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,264,112. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 220,426 shares of company stock valued at $35,993,340 over the last three months. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 497,874,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $75,144,172,000 after purchasing an additional 4,064,073 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 14.4% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 57,803,291 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,724,251,000 after purchasing an additional 7,275,757 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 49,472,478 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,011,412,000 after purchasing an additional 238,403 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.7% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 35,412,299 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,344,778,000 after purchasing an additional 597,756 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 23,465,190 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,274,184,000 after purchasing an additional 418,204 shares during the last quarter. 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.