Oppenheimer Reaffirms Outperform Rating for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Oppenheimer restated their outperform rating on shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) in a report published on Thursday,Benzinga reports. Oppenheimer currently has a $235.00 price target on the information services provider's stock, up from their previous price target of $220.00.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on GOOG. Cowen reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Barclays restated a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Raymond James Financial set a $185.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday. Citigroup restated a "sell" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $215.19.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOG stock traded up $0.72 during trading on Thursday, hitting $193.92. The company had a trading volume of 7,026,625 shares, compared to its average volume of 24,101,785. Alphabet has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $208.70. The stock's 50-day moving average is $176.33 and its two-hundred day moving average is $174.69. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.35 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.67 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.22% and a net margin of 31.12%. The company's revenue was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Alphabet will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $3,448,820.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 243,400 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $45,213,984. This trade represents a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 400 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.98, for a total value of $72,792.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 6,013 shares in the company, valued at $1,094,245.74. This trade represents a 6.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 249,409 shares of company stock worth $43,523,710 in the last three months. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.6% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 120,253 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $22,901,000 after acquiring an additional 6,410 shares in the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 506,535 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $96,465,000 after acquiring an additional 20,855 shares during the period. Murphy & Mullick Capital Management Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $151,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 8.2% in the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 8,117,784 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,567,788,000 after acquiring an additional 612,182 shares during the period. Finally, Sava Infond d.o.o. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $429,000. 27.26% 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.