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

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) declared 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 of this dividend is Monday, September 9th.

Alphabet has a payout ratio of 9.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 Stock Down 4.0 %

Shares of GOOGL opened at $150.92 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $170.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $164.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a current ratio of 2.08. Alphabet has a 1 year low of $120.21 and a 1 year high of $191.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.87 trillion, a PE ratio of 23.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.05.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on GOOGL. Guggenheim lifted their price target on Alphabet from $195.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Citigroup upped their price target on Alphabet from $190.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $220.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. TD Securities increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $200.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $202.81.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,137,385 shares in the company, valued at $339,160,251.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total value of $600,175.38. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 9 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,655.91. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.68, for a total value of $3,570,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,137,385 shares in the company, valued at $339,160,251.80. 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 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

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.