Wells Fargo & Company Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) had its price objective hoisted by research analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $184.00 to $187.00 in a report issued on Thursday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has an "equal weight" rating on the information services provider's stock. Wells Fargo & Company's price target would indicate a potential downside of 2.90% from the company's previous close.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Barclays raised their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. BNP Paribas cut Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. KeyCorp raised their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $172.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $211.32.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $192.58 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $2.34 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.51, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. Alphabet has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05. The stock's 50-day moving average is $176.29 and its 200 day moving average is $172.79.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total value of $5,801,900.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,559,892 shares of the company's stock, valued at $456,991,919.84. This represents a 1.25% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $3,448,820.16. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 243,400 shares in the company, valued at $45,213,984. This trade represents a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 249,409 shares of company stock valued at $43,523,710. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $24,383,677,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the first quarter valued at approximately $4,317,606,000. FMR LLC boosted 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 valued at $47,025,322,000 after acquiring an additional 22,100,902 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 16,993.2% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,483,898,000 after buying an additional 15,968,487 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Alphabet by 2.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $78,839,544,000 after purchasing an additional 14,307,345 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.