Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.75

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, June 12th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be given a dividend of 0.75 per share by the software giant on Thursday, September 12th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.72%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 15th.

Microsoft has increased its dividend by an average of 10.1% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 22 consecutive years. Microsoft has a payout ratio of 22.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Microsoft to earn $15.05 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 19.9%.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.8 %

MSFT stock opened at $414.01 on Wednesday. Microsoft has a twelve month low of $309.45 and a twelve month high of $468.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market cap of $3.08 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.85, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.90. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $437.04 and its 200-day moving average price is $422.15.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last posted its quarterly 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. Microsoft had a return on equity of 35.95% and a net margin of 35.96%. The company had revenue of $64.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.38 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.69 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Microsoft will post 13.04 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 244 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $415.53, for a total transaction of $101,389.32. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 47,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,534,480.83. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 244 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $415.53, for a total transaction of $101,389.32. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 47,011 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,534,480.83. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $425.68, for a total value of $10,642,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 104,949 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $44,674,690.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 25,566 shares of company stock valued at $10,877,535. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Microsoft

A hedge fund recently raised its stake 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 currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on MSFT. Macquarie boosted their price target on Microsoft from $460.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 17th. Mizuho boosted their price target on Microsoft from $450.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Microsoft from $520.00 to $510.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Microsoft from $475.00 to $485.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Microsoft from $465.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $494.72.

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.