Fidelity Management & Research Co recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Communication Services company by 10.38% to 105.37 million shares with purchase of 9.91 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 1.82% valued currently at $14.47 billion. In addition, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings by 0.88 million to 98.22 million shares. And JPMorgan Investment Management, I has lifted its position by 10.84% or 5.8 million shares – to 59.29 million shares.
With over 48.63 million Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) shares trading Friday and a closing price of $138.30 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $6.73 billion. The shares have shown a positive half year performance of 36.84% and its price on 09/15/23 lost nearly -0.50%. Currently, there are 5.80B common shares owned by the public and among those 5.03B shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 55 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for GOOG have a consensus price objective of $149.61. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $200.00 and a low of $121.00. The average price target is 2.81% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -14.3% over that period. But an upside of 30.85% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $150.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 272 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 59 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 7,524,385 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 213 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 9,875,149 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Alphabet Inc. are Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, Government Pension Fund – Global, and Vanguard 500 Index Fund. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF owns 155.57 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $21.37 billion. The company bought an additional 0.1 million shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 2.68% of the shares outstanding. Government Pension Fund – Global bought 12.9 million shares to see its total holdings expand to 126.1 million shares valued at over $17.32 billion and representing 2.17% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard 500 Index Fund bought 0.69 million shares to bring its total holdings to over 123.08 million shares at a value of $16.91 billion. Vanguard 500 Index Fund now owns shares totaling to 2.12% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) opened at $138.80, down -$0.19 from a prior closing price of $138.99. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of 0.80% and 9.95% over the past three months. GOOG shares are trading 55.87% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance up to 30.63% higher. It has a 12-month low price of $83.45 and touched a high of $139.55 over the same period. GOOG has an average intraday trading volume of 22.72 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by 2.99%, 6.76%, and 25.02% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) shares accounts for 62.21% of the company’s 5.80B shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 35.47%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 7.21% and 25.64% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $1737.70B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.06. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 28.57, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $4.84. The company has a PEG of 1.76. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 1.59% over the week and 1.94% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) will achieve an EPS of $1.43 for the current quarter, $1.6 for the next quarter and $6.62 for 2024. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $1.27 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $1.55. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $1.06 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 23.20%, and 17.80% over the next financial year. EPS should shrink at an annualized rate of 16.20% over the next five years, compared to 21.75% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 55 brokerage firm advisors rate Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) as a “Strong Buy” at a consensus score of 1.60. Specifically, 40 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 10 of the 55 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the GOOG, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. BofA Securities stated their Buy rating for the stock in a research note on January 31, 2023, with the firm’s price target at $116-$119.
