JMP Securities Issues Positive Forecast for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its target price upped by equities research analysts at JMP Securities from $220.00 to $225.00 in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “market outperform” rating on the information services provider’s stock. JMP Securities’ price target would indicate a potential upside of 18.28% from the stock’s previous close.

GOOGL has been the subject of several other research reports. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price target on Alphabet from $189.00 to $191.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Citizens Jmp upgraded Alphabet from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Alphabet from $185.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 18th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $204.05.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $190.23 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $207.05. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $174.67 and a 200-day moving average price of $173.13. The firm has a market cap of $2.31 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.21, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.89 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total value of $3,448,820.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 243,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,213,984. The trade was a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total transaction of $5,801,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,559,892 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $456,991,919.84. This trade represents a 1.25% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 249,409 shares of company stock valued at $43,523,710 in the last three months. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Missouri Trust & Investment Co raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Missouri Trust & Investment Co now owns 16,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,981,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. AM Investment Strategies LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. AM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 6,477 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,141,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Perritt Capital Management Inc raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 10.4% during the 4th quarter. Perritt Capital Management Inc now owns 618 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $117,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Nia Impact Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Nia Impact Advisors LLC now owns 17,161 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,249,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bfsg LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Bfsg LLC now owns 10,428 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,838,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.