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 sent to investors on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $400.00 price objective on the information services provider’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on GOOGL. Tigress Financial set a $415.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $375.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 6th. Citizens Jmp restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $385.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $397.00 to $361.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 2nd. Finally, Wolfe Research raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $367.33.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOGL opened at $317.32 on Wednesday. Alphabet has a fifty-two week low of $143.90 and a fifty-two week high of $349.00. The company has a market capitalization of $3.84 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.12. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $307.67 and a 200-day simple moving average of $297.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a current ratio of 2.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.25. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. The business had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Investors of record on Monday, March 9th were given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.77%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $302.99, for a total transaction of $33,934.88. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 18,418 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,580,469.82. This trade represents a 0.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.41, for a total transaction of $318,580.50. Following the sale, the director owned 4,631 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,405,091.71. The trade was a 18.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 2,069,344 shares of company stock worth $104,708,426. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. EMC Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $32,000. PMV Capital Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $38,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $38,000. Finally, Bard Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $52,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Waymo expands public driverless service to Nashville — a visible commercialization milestone for Alphabet’s autonomous-vehicle unit that supports the narrative Waymo is moving from R&D toward revenue-generating rides and partnerships. Alphabet Climbs 4% on Waymo’s Nashville Expansion
• Positive Sentiment: Wing (Alphabet) and DoorDash expand drone deliveries into Atlanta — incremental commercial rollouts help validate Wing’s delivery economics and widen addressable market for autonomous logistics. Alphabet’s Wing Drone Unit, DoorDash Expand Into Atlanta
• Positive Sentiment: Broadcom deepens multi-year AI chip and networking deals with Google and Anthropic — secures TPU supply/ networking for Google’s AI racks and signals growing third‑party demand for Google’s TPU stack, which supports Google Cloud’s AI positioning. This reduces supply risk and underpins cloud/infrastructure growth. Alphabet Broadcom AI Chip Deal Underscores Undervalued Google Compute Power
• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud momentum — Market commentary shows Google Cloud is the fastest-growing major hyperscaler, with big AI-driven revenue growth, growing backlog and TPU advantage, reinforcing medium‑term revenue/earnings outlook. Google Cloud Is the World’s Fastest-Growing Major Cloud Platform
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst ratings and price targets lifted — Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated overweight ($370) and Needham reaffirmed buy ($400), providing directional upside thesis but not immediate fundamental change. Analyst Coverage
• Neutral Sentiment: Broad market tailwinds (ceasefire news) are boosting tech risk appetite — a macro bid helped push Magnificent Seven names higher alongside company-specific catalysts. Tech rally after ceasefire announcement
• Negative Sentiment: Data‑center siting concerns and environmental scrutiny (water/land/energy) could slow some capacity builds and raise costs — a potential operational risk for hyperscalers including Google Cloud. Data center community pushback
• Negative Sentiment: Ongoing content/AI accuracy and regulatory scrutiny (e.g., coverage of AI overviews) remain reputational and compliance risks that could affect ad/AI product adoption or require costly adjustments. How Accurate Are Google’s A.I. Overviews?

About Alphabet

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.