Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Now Covered by BNP Paribas Exane

Investment analysts at BNP Paribas Exane assumed coverage on shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in a research note issued on Monday. The firm set an “outperform” rating and a $355.00 price target on the information services provider’s stock. BNP Paribas Exane’s target price points to a potential upside of 12.56% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $265.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets set a $294.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Alphabet from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Tigress Financial lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $240.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have issued a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $306.70.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $315.39 on Monday. Alphabet has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $312.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.81 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $262.39 and a 200 day simple moving average of $213.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. The company had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 36.08% and a net margin of 32.23%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.15, for a total value of $8,129,875.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,369,619 shares in the company, valued at $592,760,192.85. This trade represents a 1.35% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.05, for a total transaction of $694,638.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 14,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,629,725.80. The trade was a 16.06% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 225,174 shares of company stock worth $58,095,223 in the last ninety days. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Alphabet by 1.3% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 516,559,609 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $91,033,300,000 after acquiring an additional 6,733,278 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $40,524,841,000 after purchasing an additional 4,008,374 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 3.1% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 141,615,284 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $24,857,017,000 after purchasing an additional 4,224,497 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth $21,944,208,000. Finally, Capital World Investors boosted its position in Alphabet by 28.0% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,910,542,000 after buying an additional 11,605,785 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.