Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Given “Buy” Rating at Needham & Company LLC

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

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the company. JMP Securities reaffirmed a market outperform rating and issued a $200.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Bank of America upped their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $206.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $206.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $208.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Mizuho upped their price target on Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $203.74.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.0 %

Alphabet stock opened at $163.38 on Friday. Alphabet has a 52 week low of $120.21 and a 52 week high of $191.75. The company has a market capitalization of $2.02 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.05. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $173.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $163.54. 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 (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $70.60 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.44 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 7.62 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business 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 dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 12.27%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.66, for a total transaction of $3,772,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,159,885 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $362,126,319.10. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.86, for a total value of $118,572.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,209,888.76. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.66, for a total value of $3,772,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,159,885 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $362,126,319.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 156,565 shares of company stock valued at $26,823,893. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. grew 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 valued at $75,144,172,000 after acquiring an additional 4,064,073 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $15,441,917,000. Capital Research Global Investors grew 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 valued at $8,724,251,000 after acquiring an additional 7,275,757 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in Alphabet by 0.5% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 49,472,478 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $9,011,412,000 after acquiring an additional 238,403 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,220,857 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,316,902,000 after acquiring an additional 1,472,043 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

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.