Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Receives Market Perform Rating from JMP Securities

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "market perform" rating reiterated by stock analysts at JMP Securities in a report released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports.

Several other research analysts have also issued reports on GOOGL. Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Roth Mkm reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Alphabet from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 31st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $200.00 target price (down previously from $230.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have issued a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $199.75.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $163.98 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $158.23 and a two-hundred day moving average of $174.93. Alphabet has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. The company has a market cap of $1.99 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total transaction of $1,962,705.76. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 49,037 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $8,181,333.08. This represents a 19.35% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Ruth Porat sold 17,690 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.48, for a total transaction of $3,245,761.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,449,286 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $265,914,995.28. This represents a 1.21% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 129,744 shares of company stock worth $20,968,366. Insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $24,383,677,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the first quarter worth about $4,317,606,000. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $47,025,322,000 after acquiring an additional 22,100,902 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 2.9% in 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. Institutional investors own 40.03% 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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