Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.21

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 24th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of 0.21 per share by the information services provider on Monday, June 16th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This is a 5.0% increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20.

Alphabet has a payout ratio of 8.0% 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 $0.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 7.8%.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.8 %

Alphabet stock traded down $1.35 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $160.61. The company had a trading volume of 29,697,494 shares, compared to its average volume of 28,296,295. Alphabet has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $207.05. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $162.18 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $175.62. The company has a market capitalization of $1.96 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $156.16, for a total transaction of $5,075,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,685,196 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $419,320,207.36. This represents a 1.20 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 1,340 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,848 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. This trade represents a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 148,163 shares of company stock valued at $25,361,647. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

An institutional investor recently raised its position in Alphabet stock. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 3.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 110,330 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 4,110 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises about 0.6% of Brighton Jones LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest holding. Brighton Jones LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $20,886,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $173.00 to $186.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday. Cantor Fitzgerald cut their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $159.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, DZ Bank downgraded Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $198.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $198.63.

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.