Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.20 on September 16th

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, July 17th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 9th will be given 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 dividend yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 9th.

Alphabet has a payout ratio of 9.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research 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 Price Performance

GOOGL stock opened at $150.92 on Friday. Alphabet has a 52-week low of $120.21 and a 52-week high of $191.75. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $170.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $164.14. The company has a quick ratio of 2.08, a current ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.87 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $70.60 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.44 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Alphabet will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.85, for a total value of $278,775.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 30,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,728,640.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.85, for a total value of $278,775.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 30,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,728,640.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total transaction of $600,175.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 9 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,655.91. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 178,032 shares of company stock valued at $29,854,224. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on GOOGL. Cantor Fitzgerald initiated coverage on Alphabet in a research note on Thursday. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $190.00 target price for the company. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $222.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $240.00 price target on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Alphabet from $187.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $206.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $202.81.

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.