Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target Raised to $218.00 at Stifel Nicolaus

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) had its price objective boosted by Stifel Nicolaus from $200.00 to $218.00 in a report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the information services provider's stock.

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of other research reports. BNP Paribas Exane restated a "neutral" rating and set a $172.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, June 27th. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, July 18th. Susquehanna reduced their price objective on Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a "positive" rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 25th. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Wedbush set a $190.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $211.32.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL traded up $0.64 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $192.81. 25,598,613 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 36,975,742. Alphabet has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $207.05. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $175.23 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $173.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.34 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.22% and a net margin of 31.12%. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.89 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Alphabet will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of Alphabet 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 of the company's stock, valued at $45,213,984. The trade was a 7.09% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 2nd. The stock was 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 trade represents a 1.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 249,409 shares of company stock valued at $43,523,710 over the last three months. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co now owns 27,075 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $4,187,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the period. Rockbridge Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,119,000. Cypress Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.1% in the 1st quarter. Cypress Capital LLC now owns 14,310 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,213,000 after acquiring an additional 563 shares during the period. Optivise Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,464 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,035,000 after acquiring an additional 403 shares during the period. Finally, Community Bank N.A. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 6.4% in the 4th quarter. Community Bank N.A. now owns 46,173 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $8,741,000 after acquiring an additional 2,790 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.