Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.20 on March 17th

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 4th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid 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 yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th.

Alphabet has a dividend payout ratio of 7.8% 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 Stock Up 0.9 %

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $173.86 on Friday. Alphabet has a 12-month low of $134.00 and a 12-month high of $207.05. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.12 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.60, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $188.21 and its 200-day simple moving average is $176.40.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. Equities research analysts expect that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOGL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. Robert W. Baird reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $205.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Alphabet from $210.00 to $208.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Wolfe Research lifted their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $210.62.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total transaction of $6,870,532.68. Following the sale, the director now owns 282,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. This represents a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total transaction of $3,239,868.40. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 43,981 shares in the company, valued at $8,471,620.22. This trade represents a 27.66 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 134,316 shares of company stock worth $25,062,887 over the last three months. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A hedge fund recently raised its stake in Alphabet stock. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 4,110 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for approximately 0.6% of Brighton Jones LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest holding. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $20,886,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.