Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Earns Buy Rating from Needham & Company LLC

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

A number of other research firms also recently commented on GOOGL. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $204.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $220.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Tigress Financial lifted their target price on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a strong-buy rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. JMP Securities restated a market outperform rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on Alphabet from $217.00 to $208.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $201.13.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.3 %

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $165.46 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.04. Alphabet has a one year low of $120.21 and a one year high of $191.75. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $161.63 and a 200 day simple moving average of $168.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a current ratio of 2.08.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $70.60 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.44 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet will post 7.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.23, for a total transaction of $473,929.82. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 26,349 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,406,343.27. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.23, for a total transaction of $473,929.82. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 26,349 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,406,343.27. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 21,467 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.35, for a total transaction of $3,442,233.45. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 39,334 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,307,206.90. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 197,926 shares of company stock valued at $32,251,590. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 587.4% during the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 10,690,326 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,772,991,000 after acquiring an additional 9,135,056 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in Alphabet by 14.4% during the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 57,803,291 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,724,251,000 after buying an additional 7,275,757 shares during the last quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. increased its position in Alphabet by 18,810.2% during the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,434,260 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $807,700,000 after buying an additional 4,410,811 shares during the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 143.7% during the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,072,197 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,288,201,000 after buying an additional 4,170,229 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 0.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 497,874,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $75,144,172,000 after buying an additional 4,064,073 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.