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

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 24th, RTT News reports. Investors 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.52%. 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. Equities 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 Performance

Alphabet stock traded up $2.68 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $161.96. The company had a trading volume of 55,957,898 shares, compared to its average volume of 28,435,946. The company's fifty day moving average is $162.18 and its 200-day moving average is $175.43. Alphabet has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $207.05. The company has a market capitalization of $1.97 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.12, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Alphabet will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,848 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. The trade was a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at $430,917,877.76. This trade represents a 1.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 148,163 shares of company stock valued at $25,361,647 in the last three months. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A hedge fund recently raised its stake in Alphabet stock. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 3.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 14,930 shares of the information services provider's stock after buying an additional 506 shares during the quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,826,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. Bank of America increased their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday. Mizuho dropped their price target on Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. KeyCorp raised their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $178.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday. Finally, DA Davidson lowered their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $199.03.

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.