Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.21

Key Points

• Alphabet Inc. announced a quarterly dividend of $0.21 per share, with an ex-dividend date of September 8th and payment scheduled for September 15th. This translates to an annualized dividend of $0.84 and a yield of 0.43%.
• The company reported earnings of $2.31 per share for the last quarter, surpassing analysts' estimates and achieving a year-over-year revenue increase of 13.8%.
• Alphabet has seen recent changes in insider trading, with CEO Sundar Pichai and a director selling shares, while hedge funds and institutional investors continue to show interest by increasing their stakes.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, July 25th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be paid a dividend of 0.21 per share by the information services provider on Monday, September 15th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 8th.

Alphabet has a payout ratio of 8.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Alphabet to earn $10.23 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.84 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 8.2%.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG traded up $0.88 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $194.08. The company's stock had a trading volume of 31,004,966 shares, compared to its average volume of 24,288,402. The firm has a market cap of $2.36 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $208.70. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $176.33 and a 200 day moving average price of $174.69.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.67 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.22% and a net margin of 31.12%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.89 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total value of $5,801,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,559,892 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $456,991,919.84. This represents a 1.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $3,448,820.16. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 243,400 shares in the company, valued at $45,213,984. The trade was a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 249,409 shares of company stock worth $43,523,710 over the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A hedge fund recently raised its stake in Alphabet stock. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 5.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 120,253 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 6,410 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises 0.7% of Brighton Jones LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 22nd biggest holding. Brighton Jones LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $22,901,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GOOG. Cowen reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Roth Capital restated a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, BNP Paribas cut Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $215.19.

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.

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