Alphabet’s (GOOGL) “Buy” Rating Reaffirmed at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. Needham & Company LLC currently has a $330.00 price objective on the information services provider’s stock.

GOOGL has been the topic of several other reports. DA Davidson reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $300.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. Daiwa Capital Markets lifted their target price on Alphabet from $233.00 to $333.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $270.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Argus raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $330.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 5th. Finally, Roth Mkm boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-two have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $332.60.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.6%

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $333.26 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $316.62 and a 200 day simple moving average of $261.78. Alphabet has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $340.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.75. The company has a market cap of $4.02 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.08.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. The company had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 35.00%. As a group, research analysts expect that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $283.48, for a total transaction of $9,213,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,337,119 shares in the company, valued at approximately $662,526,494.12. This represents a 1.37% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $312.30, for a total value of $867,569.40. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 8,962 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,798,832.60. This represents a 23.66% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 222,409 shares of company stock worth $68,564,532 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. River Street Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. River Street Advisors LLC now owns 19,776 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,190,000 after buying an additional 176 shares during the period. Tanager Wealth Management LLP increased its stake in Alphabet by 16.8% during the fourth quarter. Tanager Wealth Management LLP now owns 33,383 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,449,000 after acquiring an additional 4,798 shares during the period. Keystone Wealth Services LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 11.3% in the 4th quarter. Keystone Wealth Services LLC now owns 7,184 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,249,000 after acquiring an additional 730 shares in the last quarter. Next Level Wealth Planning LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $229,000. Finally, SMART Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,140,000. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Multiple analyst actions and raised targets have lifted sentiment — RBC reaffirmed its “buy” rating, Needham kept a buy with a $330 target, Raymond James upgraded the stock, and at least one shop lifted its price target to $390, supporting higher valuations. MarketScreener: RBC remains its buy rating Alphabet Price Target Raised to $390
• Positive Sentiment: High-profile portfolio activity (the “Pelosi” filing) signaled continued conviction in large-cap tech/AI exposure via option-based leverage — a bullish sign that large investors are maintaining exposure to Alphabet while optimizing capital. Pelosi’s Bullish 2026 Buy List: AI, Power & Dividends
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s VC arm participated in a $200M funding round for AI video startup Synthesia, reinforcing the company’s continued strategic bets in the AI ecosystem and potential downstream product/partnership benefits for Google Cloud and AI services. Nvidia and Alphabet VC arms back Synthesia
• Neutral Sentiment: Ongoing Magnificent Seven coverage and bullish AI narratives continue to underpin market interest in large-cap AI leaders like Alphabet, but these are thematic tailwinds rather than company-specific catalysts. Seeking Alpha: Alphabet’s Big Rally
• Neutral Sentiment: Macro and calendar risks (Fed decision, major tech earnings this week) are creating market-wide volatility that could affect GOOGL’s near-term moves independent of fundamentals. Nasdaq futures in the red ahead of big week
• Negative Sentiment: Google agreed to a preliminary $68M settlement in a class-action suit alleging its Assistant improperly recorded users — a modest but negative headline that adds legal/PR noise ahead of earnings (judge approval required). Google Agrees to Settle Class Action Lawsuit
• Negative Sentiment: CEO Sundar Pichai sold roughly $10–11M of Alphabet shares recently (reported ahead of the Feb. 4 earnings date). Insider sales can be interpreted as routine diversification but may create short-term concern among some investors. Sundar Pichai Offloads Alphabet Shares

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc is the holding company created in 2015 to organize Google and a portfolio of businesses developing technologies beyond Google’s core internet services. Its principal operations are led by Google, which builds and operates consumer-facing products such as Google Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Workspace, as well as advertising platforms (Google Ads and AdSense) that historically generate the majority of its revenue. Google also develops consumer hardware (Pixel phones, Nest smart-home devices, Chromecast) and developer and distribution platforms such as Google Play.

Beyond Google’s consumer and advertising businesses, Alphabet invests in enterprise and infrastructure offerings through Google Cloud, which provides cloud computing, data analytics and productivity services to businesses and institutions.