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

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 25th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 10th will be paid a dividend of 0.20 per share by the information services provider on Monday, June 17th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 10th.

Alphabet has a dividend payout ratio of 9.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Alphabet to earn $7.78 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 10.3%.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock traded up $15.95 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $171.95. 64,665,299 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 25,802,202. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.14 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.37, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a current ratio of 2.10. Alphabet has a 52 week low of $103.54 and a 52 week high of $174.71. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $147.85 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $141.39.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.01% and a net margin of 25.90%. The company had revenue of $86.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $70.77 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.05 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 6.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.29, for a total transaction of $3,291,525.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,377,691 shares in the company, valued at $347,832,416.39. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 230 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.06, for a total transaction of $35,433.80. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 15,104 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,326,922.24. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.29, for a total transaction of $3,291,525.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,377,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $347,832,416.39. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 253,439 shares of company stock valued at $36,746,578. 0.88% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $141.00 to $168.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $170.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Barclays upped their target price on Alphabet from $173.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price target on Alphabet from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Roth Mkm upped their price objective on Alphabet from $164.00 to $202.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $187.82.

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.