CICC Research Increases Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target to $303.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its target price increased by equities research analysts at CICC Research from $240.00 to $303.00 in a note issued to investors on Friday,MarketScreener reports. The firm presently has an “outperform” rating on the information services provider’s stock. CICC Research’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 7.71% from the stock’s previous close.

GOOGL has been the topic of several other reports. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $224.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Tigress Financial lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $240.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $265.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus set a $333.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday. Finally, CIBC lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet to $315.00 in a report on Monday, October 20th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have given a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $302.20.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $281.31 on Friday. Alphabet has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $291.59. 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 company has a market capitalization of $3.40 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.74, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.00. The company’s fifty day moving average is $244.00 and its two-hundred day moving average is $199.98.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 36.08%. The company had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. Analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.05, for a total transaction of $694,638.90. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 14,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,629,725.80. The trade was a 16.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total transaction of $4,408,034.72. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 42,985 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,635,348.70. This represents a 29.30% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 246,150 shares of company stock valued at $55,805,379 in the last quarter. Insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter valued at about $21,944,208,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the first quarter valued at about $4,317,606,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 17,667.7% in the second 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 purchasing an additional 15,159,273 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% in the first 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 51.7% in the second quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 31,817,684 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,607,232,000 after purchasing an additional 10,843,853 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.