Oppenheimer Increases Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Price Target to $185.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) had its price objective boosted by Oppenheimer from $172.00 to $185.00 in a report published on Monday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the information services provider's stock.

A number of other analysts have also recently issued reports on GOOG. Raymond James lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a positive rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.4 %

NASDAQ GOOG traded up $2.20 during trading on Monday, reaching $156.14. The company's stock had a trading volume of 16,631,916 shares, compared to its average volume of 22,800,045. The company has a current ratio of 2.10, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.94 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.92, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.05. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $145.41 and a 200-day moving average price of $140.39. Alphabet has a 1-year low of $103.27 and a 1-year high of $157.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $86.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $85.28 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 24.01% and a return on equity of 27.22%. The company's revenue was up 13.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.05 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 6.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.49, for a total value of $28,698.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 6,784 shares in the company, valued at $973,436.16. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, CFO Ruth Porat sold 48,077 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.22, for a total transaction of $6,597,125.94. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 1,777,106 shares of the company's stock, valued at $243,854,485.32. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $143.49, for a total transaction of $28,698.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,784 shares in the company, valued at approximately $973,436.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 250,739 shares of company stock worth $35,934,957. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 61,587.1% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 130,046,253 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $11,539,004,000 after buying an additional 129,835,437 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in Alphabet by 1,807.4% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 57,069,444 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $5,487,226,000 after buying an additional 54,077,519 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $3,059,614,000. Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in Alphabet by 37.6% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 71,779,112 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $6,368,961,000 after buying an additional 19,612,974 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 11.3% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 95,941,129 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $12,649,838,000 after buying an additional 9,703,425 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.26% 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.