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

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 4th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be given a dividend of 0.20 per share by the information services provider on Monday, March 17th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th.

Alphabet has a payout ratio of 7.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Alphabet to earn $10.23 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 7.8%.

Alphabet Price Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $173.86 on Friday. Alphabet has a 52 week low of $134.00 and a 52 week high of $207.05. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $188.21 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $176.40. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a market cap of $2.12 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.60, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. On average, equities analysts predict that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of research reports. DA Davidson lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. DZ Bank cut shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $198.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $229.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $210.62.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Ruth Porat sold 17,690 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.48, for a total transaction of $3,245,761.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,449,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $265,914,995.28. This represents a 1.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $197.55, for a total transaction of $559,856.70. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,085,531.55. This trade represents a 12.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 134,316 shares of company stock valued at $25,062,887 over the last three months. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A hedge fund recently raised its stake in Alphabet stock. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 4,110 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for 0.6% of Brighton Jones LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 26th largest position. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $20,886,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.