Piper Sandler Reiterates Overweight Rating for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Piper Sandler reissued their overweight rating on shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) in a research note released on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $200.00 price target on the information services provider's stock, up from their previous price target of $160.00.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $175.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $160.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Friday. Roth Mkm dropped their target price on Alphabet from $166.00 to $164.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, JMP Securities lifted their price target on Alphabet from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a market outperform rating in a report on Friday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $187.82.

Alphabet Trading Up 10.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL traded up $15.95 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $171.95. 64,637,980 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 30,650,268. The company has a quick ratio of 2.10, a current ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. Alphabet has a 1 year low of $103.54 and a 1 year high of $174.71. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.14 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.65, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.05. The business has a 50 day moving average of $147.85 and a two-hundred day moving average of $141.39.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly 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. Alphabet had a net margin of 24.01% and a return on equity of 27.22%. The business had revenue of $86.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $70.77 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.05 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 6.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total transaction of $508,150.26. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 144,685 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,566,519.45. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 230 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.06, for a total value of $35,433.80. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 15,104 shares in the company, valued at $2,326,922.24. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total transaction of $508,150.26. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 144,685 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,566,519.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 253,439 shares of company stock worth $36,746,578 over the last three months. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. M. Kraus & Co grew its position in Alphabet by 1.1% during the first quarter. M. Kraus & Co now owns 6,267 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $946,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the period. Wynn Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.9% during the 1st quarter. Wynn Capital LLC now owns 1,767 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $267,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares during the period. Aire Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Aire Advisors LLC now owns 11,772 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,645,000 after purchasing an additional 68 shares in the last quarter. Henrickson Nauta Wealth Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. Henrickson Nauta Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 3,274 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $511,000 after purchasing an additional 68 shares during the period. Finally, Penbrook Management LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Penbrook Management LLC now owns 23,170 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $3,497,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% 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.