Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Needham & Company LLC Analyst Says

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) had its target price upped by equities researchers at Needham & Company LLC from $178.00 to $210.00 in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm presently has a "buy" rating on the information services provider's stock. Needham & Company LLC's price objective points to a potential upside of 13.51% from the stock's current price.

A number of other research analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Roth Capital restated a "buy" rating and set a $205.00 target price (up previously from $180.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Citigroup restated a "buy" rating and set a $203.00 target price (up previously from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Tigress Financial increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $201.68.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL traded up $1.42 on Wednesday, reaching $185.00. The company had a trading volume of 18,207,500 shares, compared to its average volume of 32,037,639. Alphabet has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $207.05. The stock has a market cap of $2.24 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.60, a P/E/G ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.00. The company's fifty day moving average is $172.26 and its 200 day moving average is $173.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 1.77.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.89 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $1,837,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 261,966 shares in the company, valued at $45,844,050. This represents a 3.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.38, for a total transaction of $5,992,350.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,527,392 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $466,000,536.96. This trade represents a 1.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 215,843 shares of company stock worth $37,288,490. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 2.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $78,839,544,000 after purchasing an additional 14,307,345 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $47,025,322,000 after purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Alphabet by 8.3% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $18,672,198,000 after purchasing an additional 7,574,417 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors grew its holdings in Alphabet by 16.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $13,635,878,000 after purchasing an additional 10,037,685 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently 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.