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. Investors 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 9th.

Alphabet has a dividend payout ratio of 9.2% indicating that 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 4.1 %

Alphabet stock opened at $152.13 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.88 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.33, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $172.50 and a two-hundred day moving average of $165.78. Alphabet has a twelve month low of $121.46 and a twelve month high of $193.31.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.22 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.44 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Alphabet will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 21,467 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.35, for a total transaction of $3,442,233.45. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 39,334 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,307,206.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 21,467 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.35, for a total transaction of $3,442,233.45. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 39,334 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,307,206.90. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $186.74, for a total value of $4,201,650.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,227,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $415,941,874.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 200,532 shares of company stock worth $34,055,874. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

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.