Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Given Neutral Rating at BNP Paribas Exane

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "neutral" rating reiterated by stock analysts at BNP Paribas Exane in a report issued on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have a $172.00 target price on the information services provider's stock. BNP Paribas Exane's price objective would suggest a potential downside of 1.16% from the company's current price.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and set a $178.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Susquehanna dropped their price target on Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a "positive" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $199.95.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $174.03 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.11 trillion, a P/E ratio of 19.35, a PEG ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $207.05. The firm's 50 day moving average is $165.90 and its 200 day moving average is $174.57.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last posted 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 the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at $430,917,877.76. This trade represents a 1.18% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.90, for a total value of $32,380.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 7,613 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,232,544.70. The trade was a 2.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 216,195 shares of company stock worth $35,764,898 over the last three months. 11.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $78,839,544,000 after buying an additional 14,307,345 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised 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 purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $18,672,198,000 after purchasing an additional 7,574,417 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $13,635,878,000 after acquiring an additional 10,037,685 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.