Jefferies Group Weighs in on Alphabet Inc.’s FY2017 Earnings (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) – Equities research analysts at Jefferies Group issued their FY2017 EPS estimates for shares of Alphabet in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday. Jefferies Group analyst B. Fitzgerald forecasts that the information services provider will earn $31.95 per share for the year. Jefferies Group currently has a “Buy” rating and a $1,200.00 target price on the stock.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on GOOGL. Vetr upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $1,052.36 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, June 5th. Zacks Investment Research lowered shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday. Citigroup Inc. upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $1,135.00 to $1,180.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. They noted that the move was a valuation call. UBS AG reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $1,080.00 price target (up from $1,050.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Barclays PLC reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $1,060.00 price target (down from $1,065.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and forty-two have given a buy rating to the stock. The company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $1,041.11.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) remained flat at $965.29 on Thursday. 323,624 shares of the company were exchanged. The company has a market cap of $667.74 billion, a PE ratio of 32.62 and a beta of 1.00. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $966.91 and a 200 day moving average price of $900.26. Alphabet has a 12-month low of $743.59 and a 12-month high of $1,008.61. Alphabet also was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Investors acquired 31,138 put options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 348% compared to the average daily volume of 6,958 put options.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 24th. The information services provider reported $5.01 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.25 by $3.24. Alphabet had a net margin of 19.49% and a return on equity of 13.66%. The business had revenue of $20.92 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $20.83 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $8.42 earnings per share.

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Jafra Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $6,091,000. Roystone Capital Management LP increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 28.8% in the fourth quarter. Roystone Capital Management LP now owns 34,000 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $26,943,000 after buying an additional 7,600 shares during the period. Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb Inc. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 14.2% in the fourth quarter. Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb Inc. now owns 387,556 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $307,119,000 after buying an additional 48,148 shares during the period. Sand Hill Global Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Sand Hill Global Advisors LLC now owns 8,568 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,790,000 after buying an additional 230 shares during the period. Finally, Cpcm LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,340,000. 34.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Alphabet

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.