Needham & Company LLC Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price objective raised by stock analysts at Needham & Company LLC from $210.00 to $225.00 in a note issued to investors on Monday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the information services provider’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s target price points to a potential upside of 12.38% from the company’s current price.

GOOGL has been the topic of several other reports. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on Alphabet from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Alphabet from $212.00 to $232.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $217.00 price objective (up from $215.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $209.82.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $200.21 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Alphabet has a 52 week low of $130.66 and a 52 week high of $202.29. The stock has a market cap of $2.45 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.55, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.98. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $186.46 and its 200 day moving average price is $173.57.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.55 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total value of $75,437.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 16,490 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,820,779.40. This represents a 2.60 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.42, for a total value of $234,331.14. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 26,349 shares in the company, valued at $4,516,745.58. The trade was a 4.93 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 133,387 shares of company stock valued at $24,368,654. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Newton One Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $76,000. Welch Group LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. Welch Group LLC now owns 59,438 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $11,367,000 after purchasing an additional 2,141 shares in the last quarter. Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. now owns 49,510 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,372,000 after buying an additional 1,030 shares in the last quarter. Robbins Farley raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 19,202 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,635,000 after buying an additional 581 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Commonwealth Financial Services LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 109.7% in the fourth quarter. Commonwealth Financial Services LLC now owns 7,580 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,435,000 after buying an additional 3,966 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.