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

Key Points

• Alphabet Inc. has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.21 per share, with an annualized dividend of $0.84 and a yield of 0.43%, payable on September 15th to investors of record as of September 8th.
• The company reports a low payout ratio of 8.3%, indicating strong coverage of its dividend by earnings, with anticipated earnings of $10.23 per share next year supporting continued dividend payments.
• Analysts have raised their price targets for Alphabet, with predictions up to $225 from various firms, reflecting a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a target price of $211.32.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, July 25th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th will be given a dividend of 0.21 per share by the information services provider on Monday, September 15th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th.

Alphabet has a dividend 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 Price Performance

GOOGL stock traded down $0.60 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $192.58. The company's stock had a trading volume of 38,063,722 shares, compared to its average volume of 38,009,512. Alphabet has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $207.05. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.34 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a 50 day moving average of $175.77 and a two-hundred day moving average of $172.79.

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 return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Alphabet will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total transaction of $5,801,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,559,892 shares in the company, valued at $456,991,919.84. This trade represents a 1.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $3,448,820.16. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 243,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,213,984. This represents a 7.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 249,409 shares of company stock valued at $43,523,710 in the last quarter. 11.55% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

An institutional investor recently raised its position in Alphabet stock. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 3.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 14,930 shares of the information services provider's stock after buying an additional 506 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,826,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently issued reports on GOOGL. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $218.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Tigress Financial increased their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Susquehanna raised their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a "positive" rating in a research note on Thursday. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane restated a "neutral" rating and set a $172.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, June 27th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $211.32.

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.