Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Buy Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in a research note released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. Needham & Company LLC currently has a $178.00 price objective on the information services provider’s stock.

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of other reports. UBS Group set a $190.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. Bank of America reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Citizens Jmp cut shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $200.74.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $151.08 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $165.14 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $175.77. Alphabet has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05. The firm has a market cap of $1.84 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.77, 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.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. Analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.53%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.94%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, April 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.90, for a total transaction of $32,380.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,613 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,232,544.70. The trade was a 2.56 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 148,163 shares of company stock valued at $25,361,647 over the last 90 days. 11.55% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Wells Trecaso Financial Group LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Wells Trecaso Financial Group LLC now owns 71,147 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $11,002,000 after purchasing an additional 605 shares in the last quarter. Shepherd Financial Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 21.9% in the first quarter. Shepherd Financial Partners LLC now owns 38,495 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,953,000 after acquiring an additional 6,904 shares during the last quarter. Clarius Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 8.2% in the first quarter. Clarius Group LLC now owns 71,523 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $11,060,000 after buying an additional 5,434 shares in the last quarter. Hemenway Trust Co LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.4% in the first quarter. Hemenway Trust Co LLC now owns 315,962 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $48,860,000 after purchasing an additional 10,367 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Financial Perspectives Inc boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.6% during the 1st quarter. Financial Perspectives Inc now owns 4,096 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $633,000 after acquiring an additional 142 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.