Alphabet announced Thursday that it will pay a 20-cent dividend per share, its first ever, and that its board has authorized the repurchase of up to $70 billion in stock.
The company’s move comes after Meta’s board approved its first dividend in February. Google’s parent company held $108 billion in cash and marketable securities on March 31, 2024.
Shares rose 15% in after-hours trading. The announcement was made alongside higher-than-expected first-quarter earnings.
Alphabet authorized an identically sized repurchase exactly one year ago, during a moment of severe cost-cutting and layoffs.
The dividend is payable to all share classes, including super-voting Class B and non-voting Class C owners. The majority of Google stockholders own the corporation through Class A shares. All stockholders who were on record as of June 10 will get the dividend that same month.
Sergey Brin, co-founder and owner of Google about 730 million Class B and C shares, will get a $146 million settlement. Co-founder Larry Page, who holds 389 million Class B shares, will get a $78 million dividend.
Investors have been seeking for indicators of maturity in technological companies. Every major technology company announced layoffs and reduced spending beginning in 2022. Investors rewarded those efforts, and have reacted similarly to share buybacks and dividend initiations. In February, Meta issued its first dividend, which helped push shares up more than 14%.
Notably, Amazon has never paid a dividend or authorized a share buyback comparable to Google’s. Amazon’s greatest share repurchase in 2022 was worth up to $10 billion.
Amazon is set to report its first-quarter profits on Tuesday.
