Wells Fargo & Company restated their outperform rating on shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in a research report report published on Saturday, July 22nd. The brokerage currently has a $1,150.00 price target on the information services provider’s stock.
“durable growth engines” and fully addresses the needs of marketers.”We believe additional user signals provided by mobile device adoption, expanded targeting options and improvements in measurement are key drivers for increasing search and YouTube ad productivity,” the analyst added.Meanwhile, paid click growth showed an “impressive” 61 percent gain on a year-over-year basis and a 15 percent sequential growth within the Google operated properties, Stabler continued. In addition, YouTube saw notable strength despite an ad controversy which appears to have posed no impact on the results.On the other hand, Alphabet did report a higher-than-expected traffic acquisition cost, but this shouldn’t be of concern to investors. At the end of the day, Google maintains its status as being well-positioned to continue gaining market share in the online advertising space, and the adoption of machine learning technologies will result in efficiency improvements for marketers.Finally, Alphabet still has many levers for future growth, including YouTube, local, Cloud and hardware sales.Canaccord: Solid Quarter But Don’t Don’t BuyCanaccord Genuity’s Michael Graham maintains a Hold rating on Alphabet’s stock with an unchanged $1,000 price target despite the company’s “solid” earnings report in which core revenue growth of 19.6 percent was “fairly close” enough to the “psychologically important 20 percent level.”Looking forward, Alphabet’s third quarter will mark an “important test” as this represents the anniversary in which mobile ad slots started rolling out in 2015 and 2016.Finally, Alphabet may have a gross margin problem in which fast-growing segments boasts lower gross margin structures. For example, the mobile search’s gross margin is modeled to be at 60 percent, YouTube is modeled at less than 40 percent and programmatic at less than 20 percent. These figures fall short of the company average of 62 percent over the past three years and 60 percent in the second quarter.”We believe these trends are likely to persist for the foreseeable future, and while we applaud the increased gross profit dollars they bring, we note that this headwind makes raising EPS estimates more difficult,,” Wells Fargo & Company’s analyst wrote.
A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley reiterated an overweight rating and set a $1,050.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Saturday, July 22nd. Deutsche Bank AG reiterated a buy rating and set a $1,220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, July 21st. Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (The) reiterated a buy rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 19th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a buy rating and set a $1,050.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, July 17th. Finally, Pivotal Research restated a hold rating and issued a $980.00 target price (down previously from $990.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, July 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, forty have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. The stock has an average rating of Buy and a consensus price target of $1,022.32.
Shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ GOOG) traded down 0.12% during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $929.72. 1,418,700 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged. Alphabet has a 52 week low of $727.54 and a 52 week high of $988.25. The company has a market capitalization of $644.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.69 and a beta of 0.94. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $943.17 and a 200-day moving average price of $884.16.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 24th. The information services provider reported $5.01 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $4.43 by $0.58. Alphabet had a net margin of 19.49% and a return on equity of 13.66%. The firm had revenue of $26.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.61 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $8.42 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 21.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post $30.74 EPS for the current year.
In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $937.92, for a total value of $3,751,680.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,830 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,716,393.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director L John Doerr sold 13,355 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $935.93, for a total value of $12,499,345.15. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 3,468 shares in the company, valued at $3,245,805.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 40,542 shares of company stock worth $38,294,486 over the last ninety days. 13.92% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.
A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Riggs Asset Managment Co. Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 39.6% in the second quarter. Riggs Asset Managment Co. Inc. now owns 141 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $128,000 after buying an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Farmers National Bank increased its position in Alphabet by 15.0% in the first quarter. Farmers National Bank now owns 161 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $134,000 after buying an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 1,046.7% in the second quarter. St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC now owns 172 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $156,000 after buying an additional 157 shares in the last quarter. Pacific Center for Financial Services purchased a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $142,000. Finally, Cribstone Capital Management LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 5.7% in the second quarter. Cribstone Capital Management LLC now owns 184 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $167,000 after buying an additional 10 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 34.60% of the company’s stock.
Alphabet Company Profile
Alphabet Inc is a holding company. The Company’s businesses include Google Inc (Google) and its Internet products, such as Access, Calico, CapitalG, GV, Nest, Verily, Waymo and X. The Company’s segments include Google and Other Bets. The Google segment includes its Internet products, such as Search, Ads, Commerce, Maps, YouTube, Google Cloud, Android, Chrome and Google Play, as well as its hardware initiatives.
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