Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Buy Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reiterated their buy rating on shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in a report released on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $210.00 price target on the information services provider’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on GOOGL. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their target price on Alphabet from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Raymond James increased their target price on Alphabet from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Piper Sandler reiterated an overweight rating and issued a $200.00 target price (up previously from $160.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Alphabet from $185.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Bank of America reissued a buy rating and issued a $200.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, June 11th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $193.66.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $182.15 on Friday. Alphabet has a one year low of $115.35 and a one year high of $186.05. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $172.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $154.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.25 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a current ratio of 2.15.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.49 by $0.40. Alphabet had a return on equity of 29.52% and a net margin of 25.90%. The company had revenue of $80.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $66.04 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.17 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 7.6 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 10th were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 12.27%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.79, for a total value of $105,566.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,532,870.36. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.79, for a total value of $105,566.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,532,870.36. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.67, for a total value of $3,502,575.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,325,513 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $362,012,608.71. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 143,026 shares of company stock worth $24,026,243 in the last three months. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Tributary Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the first quarter valued at about $30,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $38,000. Meritage Group LP raised its holdings in Alphabet by 1,061.5% during the third quarter. Meritage Group LP now owns 302 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 276 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 59.2% during the first quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. now owns 293 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 109 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Company Profile

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.