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 report sent to investors on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. Needham & Company LLC currently has a $450.00 price objective on the information services provider’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on GOOGL. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $420.00 price target (down from $435.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $425.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, July 17th. Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 1st. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-six have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $425.72.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $351.66 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $345.90 and a 200-day moving average price of $349.18. Alphabet has a 52 week low of $235.84 and a 52 week high of $408.61. The company has a quick ratio of 2.64, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.30 trillion, a P/E ratio of 17.66, a PEG ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.21.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.89 by $6.22. The company had revenue of $119.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $117.07 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 54.77% and a return on equity of 51.32%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 20.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 7th were issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 4th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 4.42%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Marsida Saraci sold 449 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $333.20, for a total value of $149,606.80. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 27,386 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,125,015.20. The trade was a 1.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 83 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.45, for a total transaction of $28,257.35. Following the transaction, the director owned 19,076 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,494,424.20. This represents a 0.43% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 441,399 shares of company stock worth $8,677,053 over the last quarter. Insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp increased its stake in Alphabet by 5.6% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 238,977,259 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $85,403,303,000 after acquiring an additional 12,718,127 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 45,394,474 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $14,208,470,000 after acquiring an additional 208,362 shares in the last quarter. Amundi boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 33,203,350 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $11,865,809,000 after acquiring an additional 1,457,371 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Nuveen LLC now owns 29,166,806 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $9,129,210,000 after acquiring an additional 478,848 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 10.1% in the second quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 17,724,321 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,334,186,000 after purchasing an additional 1,631,721 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet unveiled Gemini Agent, an AI system designed to complete multistep tasks across Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Calendar and third-party platforms such as Microsoft 365, Salesforce Slack, Jira and Snowflake. The enterprise focus could support Google Cloud growth and create new Workspace monetization opportunities. Alphabet Introduces Gemini Agent—Can It Trigger a Breakout?
• Positive Sentiment: TD Cowen raised its Alphabet price target to $485 while maintaining a Buy rating after the Gemini Agent announcement. Other coverage continues to be broadly bullish, with analysts citing Alphabet’s valuation, advertising business, cloud expansion and AI potential. Alphabet Introduces Gemini Agent—Can It Trigger a Breakout?
• Positive Sentiment: Employees are reportedly testing Gemini 4 Carbon, a newer internal model that could improve Alphabet’s competitiveness against OpenAI and Anthropic if it delivers better performance. The report is speculative, but it reinforces expectations for continued AI investment. Google is about to roll out a new AI model
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s reported roughly $13 billion Nordic AI data-center investment highlights access to reliable, lower-cost power and could help address U.S. permitting and grid constraints, though the spending also raises capital-intensity concerns. Google’s $13 Billion Nordic Bet

About Alphabet

Alphabet Inc is a technology and internet services company best known as the parent company of Google. Its primary business, Google Services, includes online search, digital advertising, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Google Maps, Google Play, and a range of hardware and subscription products.

Alphabet also operates Google Cloud, which provides infrastructure, data analytics, cybersecurity, productivity software, and artificial intelligence services to businesses, governments, and other organizations.