Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Argus Analyst Says

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its target price raised by analysts at Argus from $330.00 to $365.00 in a note issued to investors on Monday,MarketScreener reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the information services provider’s stock. Argus’ price target would suggest a potential upside of 15.82% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on GOOGL. Arete Research boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $300.00 to $380.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 2nd. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $260.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. DA Davidson reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-two have issued a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $318.67.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.7%

GOOGL stock opened at $315.15 on Monday. Alphabet has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $328.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $301.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $244.48. The company has a market capitalization of $3.80 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.08.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 35.00%. The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. On average, analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,829 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $314.89, for a total transaction of $5,614,173.81. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 42,972 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,531,453.08. The trade was a 29.32% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $288.26, for a total value of $800,786.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 11,739 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,383,884.14. This trade represents a 19.14% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 192,687 shares of company stock worth $56,255,711 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $21,944,208,000. Berkshire Hathaway Inc bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at about $4,338,397,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 17,667.7% in the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 15,245,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,686,640,000 after acquiring an additional 15,159,273 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 28.0% in the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,910,542,000 after acquiring an additional 11,605,785 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased 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 worth $5,607,232,000 after acquiring an additional 10,843,853 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Alphabet

Alphabet Inc is the holding company created in 2015 to organize Google and a portfolio of businesses developing technologies beyond Google’s core internet services. Its principal operations are led by Google, which builds and operates consumer-facing products such as Google Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Workspace, as well as advertising platforms (Google Ads and AdSense) that historically generate the majority of its revenue. Google also develops consumer hardware (Pixel phones, Nest smart-home devices, Chromecast) and developer and distribution platforms such as Google Play.

Beyond Google’s consumer and advertising businesses, Alphabet invests in enterprise and infrastructure offerings through Google Cloud, which provides cloud computing, data analytics and productivity services to businesses and institutions.