Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL – Get Free Report)’s stock price was down 0.8% on Thursday after Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on the stock from $144.00 to $141.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as low as $152.18 and last traded at $153.70. Approximately 13,055,008 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 57% from the average daily volume of 30,692,281 shares. The stock had previously closed at $154.92.
A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on GOOGL. Roth Mkm cut their price target on shares of Alphabet from $166.00 to $164.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Wolfe Research upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. StockNews.com raised shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 20th. Susquehanna upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Redburn Atlantic upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $155.39.
Insider Transactions at Alphabet
In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total value of $94,769.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,920 shares in the company, valued at $4,009,032.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total transaction of $94,769.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,920 shares in the company, valued at $4,009,032.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $142.14, for a total transaction of $3,198,150.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,400,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $341,163,148.74. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 250,739 shares of company stock worth $35,934,957 over the last ninety days. 0.88% of the stock is owned by insiders.
Institutional Trading of Alphabet
Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Bornite Capital Management LP purchased a new position in Alphabet during the first quarter valued at approximately $16,688,000. Markel Corp grew its stake in Alphabet by 17.0% in the 1st quarter. Markel Corp now owns 15,500 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $43,110,000 after buying an additional 2,250 shares in the last quarter. United Bank grew its stake in Alphabet by 5.9% in the 1st quarter. United Bank now owns 2,033 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,654,000 after buying an additional 113 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its stake in Alphabet by 23.4% in the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 323,918 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $900,929,000 after buying an additional 61,427 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dakota Wealth Management grew its stake in Alphabet by 20.4% in the 1st quarter. Dakota Wealth Management now owns 9,279 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $25,806,000 after buying an additional 1,570 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.
Alphabet Trading Down 2.8 %
The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a current ratio of 2.10. The firm has a market cap of $1.87 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.50, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.05. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $144.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $138.70.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. Alphabet had a net margin of 24.01% and a return on equity of 27.22%. The business had revenue of $86.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $70.77 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.05 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 6.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
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.