Roth Mkm Reaffirms Buy Rating for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by research analysts at Roth Mkm in a report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $220.00 price target on the information services provider’s stock. Roth Mkm’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 35.64% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on GOOGL. KeyCorp lowered their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $202.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $205.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $200.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday. Wolfe Research upped their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $210.59.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL traded up $1.53 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $162.20. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,996,855 shares, compared to its average volume of 25,698,458. The company has a market cap of $1.98 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02. Alphabet has a 12-month low of $146.08 and a 12-month high of $207.05. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $184.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $176.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. On average, analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,368 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.55, for a total transaction of $262,040.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,961,445.55. This represents a 6.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Ruth Porat sold 17,690 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.48, for a total value of $3,245,761.20. Following the sale, the insider now owns 1,449,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $265,914,995.28. This trade represents a 1.21 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 93,048 shares of company stock valued at $17,374,274. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $47,025,322,000 after purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in Alphabet by 0.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 222,555,548 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $36,910,838,000 after buying an additional 743,369 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 2.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 134,030,679 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,154,651,000 after buying an additional 2,626,431 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $24,383,677,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $18,672,198,000 after purchasing an additional 7,574,417 shares during the period. 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.