Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Upgraded at Citizens Jmp

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) was upgraded by Citizens Jmp from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a note issued to investors on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other research firms have also recently weighed in on GOOG. Citigroup restated a "sell" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Susquehanna reiterated a "positive" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and six have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $204.88.

Alphabet Trading Up 2.2%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $178.27 on Thursday. Alphabet has a twelve month low of $142.66 and a twelve month high of $208.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a market cap of $2.16 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.01. The company's fifty day moving average is $167.82 and its 200-day moving average is $176.17.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results 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 net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.89 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Alphabet will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total transaction of $104,537.09. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,303 shares in the company, valued at $2,377,014.99. This represents a 4.21% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares in the company, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 216,195 shares of company stock worth $35,764,898. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $5,166,070,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at $2,622,943,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 18,562.3% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,323,323 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,237,733,000 after acquiring an additional 14,246,573 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position 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 acquiring an additional 9,687,855 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 9.9% in 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 in the last quarter. 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.

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