Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Up 0.1%

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) shot up 0.1% during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $160.73 and last traded at $160.02. 5,298,795 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 76% from the average session volume of 21,857,717 shares. The stock had previously closed at $159.92.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on GOOG. Raymond James lifted their price target on Alphabet from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, Susquehanna boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $159.86.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.7 %

The company has a 50 day moving average of $147.92 and a 200 day moving average of $142.27. The company has a current ratio of 2.10, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The firm has a market cap of $2.00 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $86.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $85.28 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 27.22% and a net margin of 24.01%. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 13.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.05 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 6.78 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, 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 value of $508,150.26. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 144,685 shares in the company, valued at $22,566,519.45. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, 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 value of $508,150.26. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 144,685 shares in the company, valued at $22,566,519.45. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 800 shares of the company’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 owns 7,991 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,275,043.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 251,339 shares of company stock valued at $36,377,482. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 120,234,117 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,852,868,000 after acquiring an additional 4,348,188 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 11.3% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 95,941,129 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,649,838,000 after buying an additional 9,703,425 shares during the period. Capital International Investors boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 80,246,520 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $11,309,370,000 after buying an additional 862,550 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.3% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,269,184 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,550,942,000 after buying an additional 1,275,060 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $4,101,040,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by 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.