Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.20

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 6th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be given a dividend of 0.20 per share by the information services provider on Monday, March 17th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th.

Alphabet has a dividend payout ratio of 7.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Alphabet to earn $8.93 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 9.0%.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG traded up $0.01 during trading on Thursday, reaching $193.31. 20,718,282 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 18,073,158. The company's 50 day moving average is $192.33 and its two-hundred day moving average is $176.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.37 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.64, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Alphabet has a 52 week low of $131.55 and a 52 week high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on GOOG shares. Phillip Securities raised Alphabet to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. UBS Group raised their target price on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup raised their target price on Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Pivotal Research raised their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $209.13.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total transaction of $3,975,075.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,061,806 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $364,259,266.02. The trade was a 1.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 1,340 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,848 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. This represents a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 89,529 shares of company stock valued at $16,600,078. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

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.

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