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. Investors 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 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75.

Microsoft has raised its dividend payment by an average of 10.1% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 22 years. Microsoft has a payout ratio of 22.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Microsoft to earn $15.02 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 20.0%.

Microsoft Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $436.70 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $422.31 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $423.73. Microsoft has a 52 week low of $309.45 and a 52 week high of $468.35. The stock has a market cap of $3.25 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.68, a PEG ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $2.95 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.90 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $64.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.38 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 35.95% and a net margin of 35.96%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.69 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Microsoft will post 13.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on MSFT shares. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $506.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Microsoft from $470.00 to $495.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price target on Microsoft from $520.00 to $510.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $494.72.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, 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 transaction of $15,600,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 496,369 shares in the company, valued at approximately $203,784,292.95. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.04, for a total value of $1,027,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 50,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,552,000. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Amy Hood sold 38,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $410.55, for a total transaction of $15,600,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 496,369 shares in the company, valued at $203,784,292.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 190,629 shares of company stock worth $77,916,485. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

An institutional investor recently raised its position in Microsoft stock. WFA Asset Management Corp increased its stake in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 27.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 216 shares during the quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $427,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.