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

Needham & Company LLC reiterated their buy rating on shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in a research note published on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $178.00 price target on the information services provider’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Mizuho reduced their target price on Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on Alphabet from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Citizens Jmp cut Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lowered their target price on Alphabet from $205.00 to $189.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $199.03.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL stock opened at $161.96 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.97 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $162.18 and a 200-day moving average price of $175.43. Alphabet has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.52%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,690 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.51, for a total transaction of $3,281,671.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 43,111 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,997,521.61. The trade was a 29.09 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total transaction of $104,537.09. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,303 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,377,014.99. The trade was a 4.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 148,163 shares of company stock valued at $25,361,647. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Heritage Investment Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 14.7% during the first quarter. Heritage Investment Group Inc. now owns 3,128 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $484,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. Alta Advisers Ltd grew its stake in Alphabet by 52.1% in the 1st quarter. Alta Advisers Ltd now owns 29,479 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,559,000 after buying an additional 10,100 shares in the last quarter. Hixon Zuercher LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Hixon Zuercher LLC now owns 28,583 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,420,000 after buying an additional 371 shares during the last quarter. Sage Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 13.4% during the 1st quarter. Sage Advisors LLC now owns 1,868 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $289,000 after buying an additional 221 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Unified Investment Management lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.2% during the 1st quarter. Unified Investment Management now owns 5,481 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $848,000 after acquiring an additional 222 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by 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.