Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.40 EPS

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by $0.40, Briefing.com reports. Alphabet had a net margin of 25.90% and a return on equity of 30.01%. The firm had revenue of $80.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $78.75 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.17 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.4% compared to the same quarter last year.

Alphabet Trading Up 10.0 %

GOOG stock traded up $15.74 during trading on Friday, hitting $173.69. The company had a trading volume of 56,500,787 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,324,858. Alphabet has a 52-week low of $104.42 and a 52-week high of $176.42. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $149.12 and a 200-day simple moving average of $142.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.16 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.64, a PEG ratio of 1.45 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.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 230 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.06, for a total transaction of $35,433.80. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 15,104 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,326,922.24. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Alphabet news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total transaction of $508,150.26. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 144,685 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,566,519.45. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 230 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.06, for a total transaction of $35,433.80. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 15,104 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,326,922.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 253,439 shares of company stock worth $36,746,578 in the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on GOOG. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Susquehanna increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Raymond James lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $165.67.

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.