Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Hits New 52-Week High Following Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Friday after Oppenheimer raised their price target on the stock from $215.00 to $225.00. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $205.77 and last traded at $206.32, with a volume of 1673717 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $202.63.

GOOG has been the subject of several other reports. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Pivotal Research upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $206.69.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total transaction of $75,437.46. Following the sale, the director now owns 16,490 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,820,779.40. The trade was a 2.60 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total transaction of $232,950.47. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 23,515 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,007,191.15. This trade represents a 5.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 121,630 shares of company stock worth $22,258,133. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Capital Performance Advisors LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 56.1% in the fourth quarter. Capital Performance Advisors LLP now owns 2,893 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $551,000 after purchasing an additional 1,040 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 10.6% in the 4th quarter. Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 7,692 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,465,000 after acquiring an additional 735 shares in the last quarter. Sierra Ocean LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $410,000. Pathway Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Pathway Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,770 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $718,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares during the period. Finally, JFS Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 25,629 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,881,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.52 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.30, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.99. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $189.70 and its 200 day moving average is $175.54.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.55 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.