Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price Target Cut by DA Davidson

Key Points

• DA Davidson cut Alphabet’s price target from $350 to $300 and maintained a neutral rating, implying approximately 4.61% upside from the prior close.
• Alphabet shares fell $38.12 to $286.77, while the company’s latest quarterly results missed expectations, with EPS of $2.12 versus the $3.02 consensus and revenue of $127.58 billion versus $127.96 billion expected.
• Despite multiple recent target cuts, analysts remain broadly positive: Alphabet has a consensus “Buy” rating and an average price target of $415.12, supported by strong Google Cloud growth and potential AI-chip opportunities.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) had its target price decreased by equities researchers at DA Davidson from $350.00 to $300.00 in a research note issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a "neutral" rating on the information services provider's stock. DA Davidson's price objective would indicate a potential upside of 4.61% from the company's previous close.

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of other reports. Susquehanna reduced their price target on shares of Alphabet from $460.00 to $400.00 and set a "positive" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Weiss Ratings reissued a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 15th. Wedbush cut their target price on shares of Alphabet from $445.00 to $387.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed a "market perform" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Freedom Capital raised shares of Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-six have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $415.12.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL stock traded down $38.12 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $286.77. The stock had a trading volume of 70,606,628 shares, compared to its average volume of 30,615,449. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $341.50 and a 200 day simple moving average of $340.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.51 trillion, a P/E ratio of 14.37, a P/E/G ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Alphabet has a 52 week low of $270.70 and a 52 week high of $408.61.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 28th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $3.02 by ($0.90). Alphabet had a net margin of 54.77% and a return on equity of 51.32%. The firm had revenue of $127.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $127.96 billion. As a group, research analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 20.60 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 83 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.45, for a total transaction of $28,257.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 19,076 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,494,424.20. This trade represents a 0.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 11.61% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. State Street Corp raised its position in Alphabet by 5.6% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 238,977,259 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $85,403,303,000 after purchasing an additional 12,718,127 shares in the last quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 28,950.0% in the 1st quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,291,926 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,671,986,000 after purchasing an additional 9,259,940 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 90.9% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 17,040,373 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $4,900,078,000 after purchasing an additional 8,112,680 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,612,704,000. Finally, Amundi increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 12.7% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 31,745,979 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $9,128,850,000 after purchasing an additional 3,574,810 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud delivered strong growth. Cloud revenue more than doubled to roughly $31 billion, with operating profit reportedly nearly tripling, reinforcing the potential payoff from Alphabet’s AI infrastructure investments. Alphabet’s Cloud Is Paying Off—But the Bill for Building It Keeps Growing
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain broadly bullish despite target cuts. Wedbush, KeyCorp, Susquehanna, Truist Financial, Rosenblatt and Cantor Fitzgerald lowered price targets, but retained positive ratings. Guggenheim and Needham reaffirmed “buy” ratings with $450 targets, suggesting the selloff may have created significant perceived upside.
• Positive Sentiment: AI-chip opportunities are expanding. Reports that OpenAI plans to use Google’s tensor processing units, along with Alphabet’s efforts to offer TPUs through Oracle Cloud, could create a new revenue stream and strengthen Google’s position against Nvidia.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc is a technology holding company best known for its Google subsidiary. Google operates a global internet-services business centered on online search, digital advertising, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Google Maps, Google Play, and a broad range of cloud-based productivity and collaboration tools.

Google Cloud provides infrastructure, data analytics, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and enterprise software services to businesses, governments, and other organizations. Alphabet also develops consumer hardware, including Pixel devices and products for connected homes, while investing in emerging businesses through its “Other Bets” segment, including autonomous transportation and life sciences initiatives.

Alphabet was established in 2015 as part of a corporate restructuring that made Google a subsidiary and provided a separate structure for its expanding portfolio of businesses.

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