Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Receives "Outperform" Rating from Oppenheimer

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "outperform" rating restated by investment analysts at Oppenheimer in a research report issued on Wednesday, MarketBeat reports. They presently have a $220.00 target price on the information services provider's stock, up from their previous target price of $200.00. Oppenheimer's price target suggests a potential upside of 23.11% from the company's previous close.

GOOG has been the subject of a number of other research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Citigroup reaffirmed a "sell" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Rosenblatt Securities raised Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Tigress Financial reissued a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lowered Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "cautious" rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, nineteen have given a buy rating and six have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $207.63.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG traded up $1.04 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $178.70. The company's stock had a trading volume of 24,662,719 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,392,262. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.17 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.92, a P/E/G ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $171.19 and a two-hundred day moving average of $175.18. Alphabet has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The firm had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $1,575,000.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 255,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,695,000. This represents a 3.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $105,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 6,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,192,275. The trade was a 8.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 215,643 shares of company stock worth $36,330,928. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $64,299,725,000 after purchasing an additional 9,687,855 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 117,991,725 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $22,470,344,000 after purchasing an additional 3,189,592 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 104,777,092 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $19,894,651,000 after purchasing an additional 1,219,606 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 9.9% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $15,971,861,000 after purchasing an additional 9,243,959 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors boosted its position in Alphabet by 6.7% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 91,236,069 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $17,376,706,000 after acquiring an additional 5,758,244 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.