Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Plans $0.20 Quarterly Dividend

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, July 17th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th will be given a dividend of 0.20 per share by the information services provider on Monday, September 16th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 9th.

Alphabet has a payout ratio of 9.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Alphabet to earn $8.64 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 9.3%.

Alphabet Trading Down 4.0 %

Alphabet stock opened at $150.92 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.87 trillion, a PE ratio of 23.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.04. Alphabet has a 12 month low of $120.21 and a 12 month high of $191.75. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $170.86 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $164.30. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. The firm had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $70.60 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.44 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on GOOGL. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Alphabet from $187.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Argus upped their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $208.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $204.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $202.81.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.92, for a total transaction of $266,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 3,727 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $663,107.84. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.92, for a total transaction of $266,880.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 3,727 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $663,107.84. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.40, for a total value of $3,991,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,213,011 shares in the company, valued at approximately $392,588,151.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 178,032 shares of company stock valued at $29,854,224 in the last quarter. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

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.