Barclays Issues Positive Forecast for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock Price

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) had its target price increased by Barclays from $250.00 to $315.00 in a report published on Thursday morning, MarketBeat reports. Barclays currently has an overweight rating on the information services provider’s stock.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on GOOG. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $340.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday. Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $270.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $285.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $324.81.

Alphabet Stock Up 2.4%

Shares of GOOG opened at $281.90 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $3.41 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $243.09 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $199.85. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. Alphabet has a 12 month low of $142.66 and a 12 month high of $291.93.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. The company had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 36.08%. The company’s revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.12 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Alphabet will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.05, for a total value of $694,638.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 14,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,629,725.80. This trade represents a 16.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total transaction of $4,408,034.72. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 42,985 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,635,348.70. This represents a 29.30% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 246,150 shares of company stock valued at $55,805,379 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth $32,000. IFS Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 400.0% during the second quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the period. Robbins Farley grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 60.0% during the second quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 160 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the period. Tripletail Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth $40,000. Finally, WestEnd Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 58.7% during the second quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC now owns 165 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

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.