Wedbush Reiterates “Outperform” Rating for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reiterated by investment analysts at Wedbush in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,RTT News reports. They currently have a $220.00 target price on the information services provider’s stock. Wedbush’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 8.57% from the stock’s current price.

GOOG has been the subject of several other reports. Phillip Securities upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Pivotal Research boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Citizens Jmp downgraded Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $206.69.

Alphabet Stock Up 2.8 %

Shares of Alphabet stock traded up $5.45 on Thursday, reaching $202.63. The stock had a trading volume of 14,532,687 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,175,975. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.48 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.99. Alphabet has a 1 year low of $131.55 and a 1 year high of $203.84. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $189.03 and a 200 day moving average price of $175.35.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.55 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.02 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.42, for a total transaction of $234,331.14. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 26,349 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,516,745.58. The trade was a 4.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total value of $75,437.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 16,490 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,820,779.40. This represents a 2.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 122,997 shares of company stock valued at $22,492,464. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Weiss Asset Management LP acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $25,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet in the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. grew its position in Alphabet by 87.3% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares during the period. Finally, Maryland Capital Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 33.0% during the fourth quarter. Maryland Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 266 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.