Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.03 EPS

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03, Zacks reports. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%.

Alphabet Trading Up 2.5 %

NASDAQ GOOG traded up $5.07 on Tuesday, hitting $207.71. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 24,196,683 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,536,748. The firm has a market cap of $2.54 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.55, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet has a 52-week low of $131.55 and a 52-week high of $208.70. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $191.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $175.71. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total transaction of $6,870,532.68. Following the transaction, the director now owns 282,832 shares in the company, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. This represents a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,606,723.84. This represents a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 122,529 shares of company stock worth $22,453,483. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Seaport Res Ptn raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Pivotal Research increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $209.13.

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.