Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Announces Dividend Increase - $0.83 Per Share

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, September 17th, 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This is a positive change 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 increased its dividend every year for the last 22 years. Microsoft has a payout ratio of 22.7% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities 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 Trading Up 0.9 %

MSFT stock traded up $3.81 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $435.15. 18,815,272 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 20,547,801. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.23 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.60, a P/E/G ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 0.90. Microsoft has a 1 year low of $309.45 and a 1 year high of $468.35. The company has a 50-day moving average of $422.80 and a 200-day moving average of $423.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 1.27.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microsoft news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.04, for a total transaction of $1,027,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 50,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,552,000. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 40,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $402.59, for a total transaction of $16,103,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 544,847 shares in the company, valued at approximately $219,349,953.73. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 2,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 50,000 shares in the company, valued at $20,552,000. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 190,629 shares of company stock worth $77,916,485. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

A hedge fund recently raised its stake in Microsoft stock. WFA Asset Management Corp grew its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT - Free Report) by 27.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,016 shares of the software giant's stock after buying an additional 216 shares during the period. WFA Asset Management Corp's holdings in Microsoft were worth $427,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Bank of America boosted their price target on Microsoft from $480.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Argus upped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $526.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Tigress Financial increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $475.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, June 13th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and set a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $550.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $494.72.

Microsoft Company Profile

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.

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