HSBC Issues Positive Forecast for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price objective boosted by HSBC from $295.00 to $335.00 in a report released on Thursday,MarketScreener Latest Ratings reports. The firm currently has a buy rating on the information services provider’s stock.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $265.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Tigress Financial upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $240.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Mizuho set a $325.00 target price on Alphabet in a report on Thursday. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on Alphabet from $224.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-three have assigned a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $301.32.

Alphabet Stock Up 2.5%

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $281.48 on Thursday. Alphabet has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $291.59. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $242.49 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $198.83. The stock has a market cap of $3.40 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.76, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a return on equity of 36.08% and a net margin of 32.23%.The business had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.90 billion. As a group, equities analysts expect that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $245.00, for a total value of $680,610.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 17,293 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,236,785. This represents a 13.84% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.70, for a total transaction of $4,637,754.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 42,999 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,371,905.30. This represents a 35.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 246,150 shares of company stock worth $55,805,379 over the last ninety days. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Alphabet in the second quarter valued at approximately $21,944,208,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 1st quarter worth approximately $4,317,606,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 17,667.7% in the 2nd 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 during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $78,839,544,000 after purchasing an additional 14,307,345 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted 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 purchasing an additional 10,843,853 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% 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.