Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target Increased to $200.00 by Analysts at Royal Bank of Canada

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price target boosted by investment analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $155.00 to $200.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the information services provider’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price objective points to a potential upside of 16.47% from the company’s current price.

Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $166.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $200.00 target price (up from $160.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday. Roth Mkm dropped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $166.00 to $164.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $174.00 to $196.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $180.24.

Alphabet Price Performance

Alphabet stock traded up $15.72 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $171.72. 40,757,775 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 30,335,750. Alphabet has a 12-month low of $103.54 and a 12-month high of $174.71. The company has a market cap of $2.13 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.62, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a quick ratio of 2.10, a current ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $147.22 and a two-hundred day moving average of $141.16.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $70.77 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.05 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 6.78 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of the business’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 owns 27,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,009,032.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.70, for a total transaction of $2,985,750.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,332,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $309,548,095.70. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total transaction of $94,769.40. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,920 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,009,032.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 251,339 shares of company stock valued at $36,377,482. 0.88% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 493,810,251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $68,980,354,000 after acquiring an additional 6,374,756 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 227,317,469 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $29,746,764,000 after buying an additional 12,070,681 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $15,441,917,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Alphabet by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 67,684,197 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,857,154,000 after buying an additional 2,416,328 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,220,857 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,316,902,000 after buying an additional 1,472,043 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% 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.