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

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, October 29th, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be given a dividend of 0.20 per share by the information services provider on Monday, December 16th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th.

Alphabet has a payout ratio of 9.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Alphabet to earn $8.65 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 9.2%.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $175.83 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $163.56 and its 200-day simple moving average is $170.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.17 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.02, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.04. Alphabet has a 12 month low of $123.93 and a 12 month high of $193.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 2.08.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. Alphabet’s revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.55 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 7.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on GOOG. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Pivotal Research upped their price target on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. DA Davidson upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $200.56.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.84, for a total transaction of $230,804.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,183 shares in the company, valued at $4,927,257.72. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.84, for a total value of $230,804.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,183 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,927,257.72. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.30, for a total transaction of $3,741,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,106,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $350,361,837.80. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 220,426 shares of company stock worth $35,993,340 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 12.99% 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.