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

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, July 17th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 9th will be paid a dividend of 0.20 per share by the information services provider on Monday, September 16th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend 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 Price Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $152.13 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1.88 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a current ratio of 2.08. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $172.50 and a 200-day moving average price of $165.62. Alphabet has a one year low of $121.46 and a one year high of $193.31.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued 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 return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. The firm had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.22 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.44 EPS. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Alphabet will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.68, for a total transaction of $3,570,300.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,137,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $339,160,251.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.68, for a total transaction of $3,570,300.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,137,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $339,160,251.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total value of $125,126.54. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 30,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,623,355.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 200,532 shares of company stock worth $34,055,874 in the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Wolfe Research raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Rosenblatt Securities lowered Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $182.86.

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.