Truist Financial Boosts Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target to $320.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price objective lifted by equities research analysts at Truist Financial from $285.00 to $320.00 in a research note issued on Thursday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the information services provider’s stock. Truist Financial’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 13.75% from the company’s current price.

Several other brokerages have also commented on GOOGL. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. Roth Capital increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 15th. Moffett Nathanson upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 25th. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $315.00 target price (up previously from $250.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have issued a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $301.98.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $281.31 on Thursday. Alphabet has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $291.59. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $244.00 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $199.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90. The stock has a market cap of $3.40 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.74, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.00.

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

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.92, for a total transaction of $145,752.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 5,116 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,242,778.72. This trade represents a 10.50% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, September 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total value 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. The trade was a 29.30% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 246,150 shares of company stock valued at $55,805,379. Company insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 516,559,609 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $91,033,300,000 after purchasing an additional 6,733,278 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.8% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $40,524,841,000 after purchasing an additional 4,008,374 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 3.1% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 141,615,284 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $24,857,017,000 after purchasing an additional 4,224,497 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at $21,944,208,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 44,151,820 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,780,875,000 after buying an additional 503,306 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.