Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.20 on March 17th

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 4th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of 0.20 per share by the information services provider on Monday, March 17th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th.

Alphabet has a payout ratio of 7.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Alphabet to earn $10.23 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 7.8%.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $175.75 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.14 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.83, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet has a one year low of $134.80 and a one year high of $208.70. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $189.85 and its 200-day moving average price is $177.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total value of $3,239,868.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 43,981 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,471,620.22. The trade was a 27.66 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. This represents a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 134,316 shares of company stock worth $25,062,887 in the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

An institutional investor recently raised its position in Alphabet stock. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 5.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 120,253 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 6,410 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up about 0.7% of Brighton Jones LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest position. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $22,901,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on GOOG shares. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet 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 research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Benchmark reissued a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $209.13.

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.