Barclays Reiterates "Buy" Rating for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Key Points

• Barclays reiterated its “buy” rating on Alphabet, reinforcing the bullish analyst view on the stock.
• Overall Street sentiment remains positive, with Alphabet holding a Moderate Buy consensus and an average price target of $412.65 from analysts.
• Alphabet recently delivered strong quarterly results, beating EPS and revenue expectations, while new developments in Google Cloud, Waymo, and AI pricing are seen as supportive long-term catalysts.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "buy" rating restated by equities researchers at Barclays in a report issued on Friday,MarketScreener reports.

A number of other equities research analysts have also weighed in on GOOGL. KeyCorp reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $425.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $425.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $420.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Rothschild & Co Redburn increased their price objective on Alphabet from $390.00 to $430.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane raised their target price on Alphabet from $390.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $412.65.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL traded down $8.21 on Friday, reaching $381.92. The stock had a trading volume of 7,519,511 shares, compared to its average volume of 31,114,619. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market capitalization of $4.63 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.26. Alphabet has a fifty-two week low of $162.00 and a fifty-two week high of $408.61. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $344.32 and a 200-day moving average of $324.52.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $2.47. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%.The company had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $106.98 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 14.29 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total value of $2,077,531.25. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 955 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $298.00, for a total transaction of $284,590.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 9,918 shares in the company, valued at $2,955,564. This trade represents a 8.78% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 226,481 shares of company stock valued at $27,422,061. 11.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $20,886,000 after acquiring an additional 4,110 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,826,000 after purchasing an additional 506 shares in the last quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 17.6% during the second quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY now owns 3,888 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $685,000 after purchasing an additional 581 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 11.2% during the second quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 485,486 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $85,557,000 after purchasing an additional 48,805 shares during the last quarter. Finally, United Bank grew its position in Alphabet by 6.9% in the 2nd quarter. United Bank now owns 48,204 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $8,495,000 after purchasing an additional 3,120 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s Google Cloud landed a partnership with EQT to help more than 300 portfolio companies accelerate AI adoption, reinforcing Google’s enterprise AI growth story. Reuters: Private equity firm EQT partners with Google Cloud for AI rollout
• Positive Sentiment: Waymo, Alphabet’s autonomous driving unit, continues to gain traction as it expands robotaxi deployments and lowers fleet costs with newer vehicles, supporting the long-term value of Alphabet’s “other bets” segment. CNBC: Waymo opens Ojai robotaxis
• Positive Sentiment: Google is making its AI models cheaper and faster, which could improve adoption and strengthen monetization across search and cloud products. Business Insider: Google has been waiting for this moment
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet also received a new “Buy” rating from Cantor Fitzgerald, adding to the bullish analyst sentiment around the stock. The Globe and Mail: Alphabet Class A (GOOGL) Gets a Buy from Cantor Fitzgerald

About Alphabet

Alphabet Inc is the holding company created in 2015 to organize Google and a portfolio of businesses developing technologies beyond Google's core internet services. Its principal operations are led by Google, which builds and operates consumer-facing products such as Google Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Workspace, as well as advertising platforms (Google Ads and AdSense) that historically generate the majority of its revenue. Google also develops consumer hardware (Pixel phones, Nest smart-home devices, Chromecast) and developer and distribution platforms such as Google Play.

Beyond Google's consumer and advertising businesses, Alphabet invests in enterprise and infrastructure offerings through Google Cloud, which provides cloud computing, data analytics and productivity services to businesses and institutions.

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