Stifel Nicolaus Increases Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Price Target to $174.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) had its price objective raised by Stifel Nicolaus from $154.00 to $174.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the information services provider’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Raymond James increased their target price on Alphabet from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a positive rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an overweight rating and set a $165.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Buy and an average price target of $159.86.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $155.72 on Tuesday. 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 fifty-two week low of $103.27 and a fifty-two week high of $161.70. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $147.46 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $141.87. The stock has a market cap of $1.94 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 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 the consensus estimate of $85.28 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.05 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 6.78 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total value of $508,150.26. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 144,685 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,566,519.45. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total value of $508,150.26. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 144,685 shares in the company, valued at $22,566,519.45. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.56, for a total value of $127,648.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,991 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,275,043.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 251,339 shares of company stock worth $36,377,482 in the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Totem Point Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 22.0% in the 1st quarter. Totem Point Management LLC now owns 3,171 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,857,000 after buying an additional 571 shares during the last quarter. Somerville Kurt F lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 10.3% in the first quarter. Somerville Kurt F now owns 118 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $330,000 after acquiring an additional 11 shares during the last quarter. BCK Partners Inc. acquired a new position in Alphabet in the first quarter valued at approximately $2,564,000. Hall Capital Management Co. Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 53.2% during the first quarter. Hall Capital Management Co. Inc. now owns 144 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $402,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fairfield Bush & CO. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 6.8% during the first quarter. Fairfield Bush & CO. now owns 3,370 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $9,412,000 after purchasing an additional 214 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

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.