Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Announces Dividend Increase - $0.21 Per Share

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, April 28th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a dividend of 0.21 per share by the information services provider on Monday, June 16th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a 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 dividend payout ratio of 7.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG traded down $1.43 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $162.42. 20,824,367 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 19,317,784. Alphabet has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $208.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $164.25 and its 200 day simple moving average is $177.35. The firm has a market cap of $1.98 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.18, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The company had revenue of $90.23 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%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.89 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 1,340 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares in the company, valued at $3,606,723.84. The trade was a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $156.16, for a total value of $5,075,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,685,196 shares of the company's stock, valued at $419,320,207.36. This trade represents a 1.20 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 148,163 shares of company stock worth $25,361,647. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

An institutional investor recently raised its position in Alphabet stock. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 5.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 120,253 shares of the information services provider's stock after buying an additional 6,410 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises 0.7% of Brighton Jones LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest holding. Brighton Jones LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $22,901,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOG has been the subject of several research reports. Citizens Jmp downgraded shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Citigroup reaffirmed a "sell" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Westpark Capital restated a "buy" rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a "neutral" rating and issued a $171.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $203.94.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.