Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Rating Reaffirmed by Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC restated their buy rating on shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in a research report report published on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $210.00 target price on the information services provider’s stock.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Argus upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an outperform rating and set a $222.00 price target (up previously from $215.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a neutral rating and set a $181.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a buy rating and set a $196.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $203.74.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $166.66 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.08, a current ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Alphabet has a twelve month low of $120.21 and a twelve month high of $191.75. The stock has a market cap of $2.05 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.05. The company’s fifty day moving average is $178.42 and its 200 day moving average is $161.44.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. The company had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $70.60 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.44 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 7.62 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 9th will be given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 12.27%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.00, for a total transaction of $114,576.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 31,334 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,264,112. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.22, for a total value of $3,897,450.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,258,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $391,132,665.42. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.00, for a total transaction of $114,576.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 31,334 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,264,112. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 99,808 shares of company stock worth $17,732,125. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Norges Bank bought a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $15,441,917,000. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 14.4% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 57,803,291 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,724,251,000 after buying an additional 7,275,757 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 493,810,251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $68,980,354,000 after buying an additional 6,374,756 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 39,754.9% in the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 6,025,667 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $841,725,000 after buying an additional 6,010,548 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4,894.1% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 5,445,396 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,606,670,000 after buying an additional 5,336,359 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.