Needham & Company LLC Increases Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target to $210.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its target price lifted by Needham & Company LLC from $160.00 to $210.00 in a research report released on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the information services provider’s stock.

GOOGL has been the topic of several other reports. Roth Mkm reduced their target price on Alphabet from $166.00 to $164.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Mizuho upped their price target on Alphabet from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Friday. Wolfe Research upped their price target on Alphabet from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on Alphabet from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on Alphabet from $180.00 to $173.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $189.44.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL opened at $166.15 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a current ratio of 2.15. Alphabet has a 52-week low of $103.71 and a 52-week high of $174.71. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.07 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.05. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $148.36 and its 200-day moving average price is $141.62.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.49 by $0.40. Alphabet had a return on equity of 29.52% and a net margin of 25.90%. The firm had revenue of $80.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $66.04 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.17 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet will post 6.82 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 10th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 10th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.29, for a total value of $3,291,525.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,377,691 shares in the company, valued at approximately $347,832,416.39. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.29, for a total transaction of $3,291,525.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,377,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $347,832,416.39. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Ruth Porat sold 48,077 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.22, for a total value of $6,597,125.94. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 1,777,106 shares in the company, valued at $243,854,485.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 253,209 shares of company stock worth $36,711,144 in the last three months. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 493,810,251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $68,980,354,000 after purchasing an additional 6,374,756 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 227,317,469 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $29,746,764,000 after buying an additional 12,070,681 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth $15,441,917,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Alphabet by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 67,684,197 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,857,154,000 after buying an additional 2,416,328 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,220,857 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,316,902,000 after buying an additional 1,472,043 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently 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.