Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.91 on September 10th

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, June 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 20th will be given a dividend of 0.91 per share by the software giant on Thursday, September 10th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 20th.

Microsoft has raised its dividend by an average of 0.1%annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 23 years. Microsoft has a dividend payout ratio of 24.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Microsoft to earn $23.27 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.64 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 15.6%.

Microsoft Stock Down 3.0%

Shares of Microsoft stock opened at $480.35 on Tuesday. Microsoft has a twelve month low of $349.20 and a twelve month high of $553.72. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The company’s 50 day moving average is $412.64 and its 200 day moving average is $408.06. The company has a market cap of $3.57 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.10.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software giant reported $4.74 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.50. The business had revenue of $90.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $87.62 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 40.31% and a return on equity of 31.98%. The firm’s revenue was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.65 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Microsoft will post 19.59 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, CEO Judson Althoff sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $487.89, for a total transaction of $4,878,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 100,447 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $49,007,086.83. This represents a 9.05% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,810 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $496.48, for a total value of $2,388,068.80. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 42,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,188,276.96. The trade was a 10.13% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders sold 37,310 shares of company stock worth $17,256,219. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Microsoft by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 717,942,580 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $347,211,391,000 after acquiring an additional 15,955,898 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in Microsoft by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 306,150,608 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $148,060,557,000 after purchasing an additional 6,388,930 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Microsoft by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 182,618,400 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $88,056,019,000 after purchasing an additional 1,911,142 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 121,220,561 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $58,624,690,000 after purchasing an additional 980,439 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter worth approximately $50,664,631,000. Institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Company Profile

Microsoft Corporation is a global technology company headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Microsoft develops, licenses and supports a broad range of software products, services and devices for consumers, enterprises and governments worldwide. Its operations span personal computing, productivity software, cloud infrastructure, enterprise applications, developer tools and gaming.

Microsoft’s product portfolio includes the Windows operating system and the Microsoft 365 suite of productivity and collaboration tools (Office apps, Outlook, Teams).