Alphabet joins the dividend club at long last -- here's what it means for investors.
Believe it or not, but Alphabet (GOOG 0.42%) (GOOGL 0.36%) pays dividends nowadays.
On the eve of the Google parent company's first-quarter earnings report, its board of directors also announced Alphabet's first-ever dividend payment. The new policy starts with a payout of $0.20 per share, issued on June 17 to holders of Class A (GOOGL voting shares), Class B (insiders only, 10 votes each), and Class C (GOOG shares without voting powers) shares.
The policy will continue on a quarterly schedule, and Alphabet seems likely to raise the payouts over time.
"We view the introduction of the dividend as further strengthening our overall capital return program," CFO Ruth Porat said on the earnings call.
Alphabet's dividend by the numbers
The annual dividend yield works out to roughly 0.4% for now. With a total of 12.4 billion shares outstanding, the cash payouts work out to a substantial $9.9 billion in the first year. Moreover, Alphabet added $70 billion to its stock buybacks program. That's up from $62.2 billion of buybacks in 2023, culled from $69.5 billion of free cash flow.
The balance between dividend payouts and share buybacks will probably shift over time. Stock repurchasing tends to consume most of Alphabet's free cash flow, and the Google parent will need to make room for the dividend budget:
GOOGL Stock Buybacks (TTM) data by YCharts
So the company has added another financial mechanism to its tool belt, stuffing cash profits directly into shareholder wallets in a new way. It's a sign of experience and maturity. It was stunning when Microsoft (MSFT 0.23%) took this step in 2003, followed by Apple's (AAPL -2.84%) return to quarterly payouts in 2012. Now, the two tech giants are commonly seen as robust income investments.
And now it's Alphabet's turn to join this club of megacap tech titans with active dividend programs.
Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Anders Bylund has positions in Alphabet. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Apple, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
