Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Plans Dividend Increase – $0.21 Per Share

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 23rd, Wall Street Journal 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 0.48%. 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 payout ratio of 8.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Alphabet to earn $10.23 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.84 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 8.2%.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG opened at $174.92 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. The company has a market capitalization of $2.12 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.73, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $161.88 and its 200 day simple moving average is $176.05. Alphabet has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The business had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $1,837,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 261,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,844,050. This represents a 3.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.71, for a total transaction of $5,483,075.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,587,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $436,570,192.16. This trade represents a 1.24% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 195,770 shares of company stock valued at $32,036,638 over the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A hedge fund recently raised its stake in Alphabet stock. Brighton Jones LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 5.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 120,253 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 6,410 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises about 0.7% of Brighton Jones LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 22nd biggest holding. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $22,901,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on GOOG shares. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a “sell” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $204.88.

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.