Truist Financial Raises Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target to $170.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) had its price target lifted by equities researchers at Truist Financial from $158.00 to $170.00 in a report released on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a "buy" rating on the information services provider's stock. Truist Financial's price objective would indicate a potential upside of 9.35% from the company's current price.

A number of other research analysts have also weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 20th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $144.00 to $141.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $155.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Redburn Atlantic lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $173.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $157.00.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL traded up $1.07 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $155.47. 21,428,076 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 30,244,928. The stock has a market cap of $1.93 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.81, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.05. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $145.95 and a 200 day simple moving average of $140.29. Alphabet has a 1-year low of $102.63 and a 1-year high of $160.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.10 and a quick ratio of 2.10.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 $70.77 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 24.01% and a return on equity of 27.22%. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.05 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Alphabet will post 6.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 660 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total value of $94,769.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,920 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,009,032.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 660 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total value of $94,769.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,920 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,009,032.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.70, for a total transaction of $2,985,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,332,691 shares of the company's stock, valued at $309,548,095.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 251,339 shares of company stock worth $36,377,482. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Spreng Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Alphabet by 4.0% in the first quarter. Spreng Capital Management Inc. now owns 131 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $364,000 after buying an additional 5 shares during the last quarter. West Family Investments Inc. boosted its position in Alphabet by 0.3% in the first quarter. West Family Investments Inc. now owns 1,754 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $4,878,000 after buying an additional 6 shares during the last quarter. Maple Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Alphabet by 2.1% in the first quarter. Maple Capital Management Inc. now owns 296 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $823,000 after buying an additional 6 shares during the last quarter. Private Advisory Group LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 1.8% in the first quarter. Private Advisory Group LLC now owns 401 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,115,000 after buying an additional 7 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Weik Capital Management boosted its position in Alphabet by 0.5% in the first quarter. Weik Capital Management now owns 1,533 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $4,264,000 after buying an additional 8 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.