Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Increases Dividend to $0.83 Per Share

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, September 16th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a dividend of 0.83 per share by the software giant on Thursday, December 12th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This is a boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75.

Microsoft has increased its dividend by an average of 10.1% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 23 years. Microsoft has a payout ratio of 25.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Microsoft to earn $14.80 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.32 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 22.4%.

Microsoft Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $417.79 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $3.11 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.47, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.91. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $422.62 and a 200-day moving average of $426.21. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. Microsoft has a 1-year low of $362.90 and a 1-year high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.99 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 12.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total transaction of $3,050,352.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,366 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. This trade represents a 6.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Amy Hood sold 38,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $410.55, for a total value of $15,600,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 496,369 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $203,784,292.95. This represents a 7.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 197,829 shares of company stock worth $80,966,837. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.3% in the second quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,658,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp grew its position in Microsoft by 27.0% during the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $427,000 after buying an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC grew its position in Microsoft by 410.4% during the third quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,144,000 after buying an additional 2,138 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. UBS Group decreased their target price on Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $550.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday. TD Cowen decreased their target price on Microsoft from $495.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $470.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $503.03.

Microsoft announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Monday, September 16th that allows the company to buyback $60.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the software giant to reacquire up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

About Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation develops and supports software, services, devices and solutions worldwide. The Productivity and Business Processes segment offers office, exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, office 365 Security and Compliance, Microsoft viva, and Microsoft 365 copilot; and office consumer services, such as Microsoft 365 consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other office services.