Oppenheimer Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price objective hoisted by research analysts at Oppenheimer from $270.00 to $300.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday,MarketScreener reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the information services provider’s stock. Oppenheimer’s price target indicates a potential upside of 19.78% from the stock’s current price.

Several other analysts also recently commented on GOOGL. HSBC assumed coverage on Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $285.00 target price for the company. BNP Paribas downgraded Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Westpark Capital raised their target price on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Finally, Loop Capital reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $190.00 price target (up previously from $165.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have issued a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $257.60.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL stock opened at $250.46 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $233.60 and a 200-day moving average price of $193.31. Alphabet has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $257.33. 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 firm has a market cap of $3.03 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.16. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%.The firm had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.60 billion. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.00, for a total transaction of $680,610.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 17,293 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,236,785. This trade represents a 13.84% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.50, for a total transaction of $8,108,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,397,392 shares in the company, valued at approximately $598,149,304. This represents a 1.34% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 246,150 shares of company stock valued at $55,805,379 in the last 90 days. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $20,886,000 after purchasing an additional 4,110 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,826,000 after purchasing an additional 506 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 10.5% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 103,870 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $16,062,000 after purchasing an additional 9,900 shares during the period. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 47.0% in the 1st quarter. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated now owns 39,246 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,077,000 after purchasing an additional 12,551 shares during the period. Finally, Matthew Goff Investment Advisor LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.9% in the 1st quarter. Matthew Goff Investment Advisor LLC now owns 2,674 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $413,000 after purchasing an additional 124 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% 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.