Weiss Ratings Reaffirms "Buy (B)" Rating for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Key Points

• Weiss Ratings has reaffirmed a "Buy (B)" rating for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), indicating confidence in its stock performance.
• Alphabet's stock price target has seen significant increases from various analysts, with JMP Securities and Wolfe Research both raising their price objectives to $290.00.
• The company reported a Q2 earnings per share (EPS) of $2.31, surpassing estimates and achieving revenues of $96.43 billion, contributing to a favorable outlook among analysts.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "buy (b)" rating reaffirmed by research analysts at Weiss Ratings in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Weiss Ratings reports.

Several other equities analysts have also weighed in on the company. JMP Securities increased their price objective on Alphabet from $250.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a report on Friday, September 19th. Wolfe Research increased their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $290.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $201.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, September 24th. Mizuho set a $295.00 price objective on Alphabet and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, September 29th. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price objective on Alphabet from $230.00 to $265.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have assigned a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $242.98.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock traded down $1.14 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $244.62. The company's stock had a trading volume of 21,149,669 shares, compared to its average volume of 36,242,906. The company has a market cap of $2.96 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.05, a P/E/G ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The business has a fifty day moving average of $223.41 and a 200-day moving average of $187.13. Alphabet has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $256.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.60 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.44, for a total value of $149,664.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 5,716 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,425,799.04. This trade represents a 9.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 953 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $241.20, for a total transaction of $229,863.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 17,294 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,171,312.80. The trade was a 5.22% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 276,738 shares of company stock worth $59,135,475. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the second quarter worth $21,944,208,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter worth $4,317,606,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 17,667.7% during the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 15,245,075 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,686,640,000 after buying an additional 15,159,273 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $78,839,544,000 after buying an additional 14,307,345 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in Alphabet by 51.7% during the second quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 31,817,684 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $5,607,232,000 after purchasing an additional 10,843,853 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.

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