Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms “Buy” Rating for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by research analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $210.00 price target on the information services provider’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price target indicates a potential upside of 13.26% from the stock’s previous close.

Other research analysts have also issued reports about the company. Tigress Financial raised their price target on Alphabet from $176.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 24th. Barclays upped their price target on Alphabet from $173.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $195.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $168.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $166.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $193.69.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $185.41 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. Alphabet has a 12 month low of $115.35 and a 12 month high of $186.05. The firm has a market cap of $2.29 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.44, a PEG ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.01. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $171.70 and a 200 day moving average price of $153.58.

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

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.92, for a total transaction of $266,880.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,727 shares in the company, valued at approximately $663,107.84. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Alphabet 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 transaction 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 approximately $4,532,870.36. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.92, for a total transaction of $266,880.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,727 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $663,107.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 146,284 shares of company stock valued at $24,534,393. 11.55% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Tributary Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 1st quarter worth approximately $30,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $38,000. Meritage Group LP raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 1,061.5% in 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. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 59.2% in 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 during the period. 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.