Microsoft Co. Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.83 (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, December 3rd,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a dividend of 0.83 per share by the software giant on Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.81%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th.

Microsoft has raised its dividend by an average of 10.2% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 23 consecutive years. Microsoft has a payout ratio of 22.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Microsoft to earn $14.70 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 22.6%.

Microsoft Trading Down 0.5 %

NASDAQ MSFT opened at $408.43 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $3.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.88, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.90. Microsoft has a 52 week low of $385.58 and a 52 week high of $468.35. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $428.76 and a 200-day moving average price of $422.92. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.15 by $0.08. Microsoft had a return on equity of 33.36% and a net margin of 35.43%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.93 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Microsoft will post 13.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.72, for a total transaction of $414,720.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 57,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,850,961.92. This represents a 1.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing 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 Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $417.00, for a total value of $10,425,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 117,294 shares in the company, valued at $48,911,598. This represents a 17.57 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 34,000 shares of company stock valued at $14,333,540 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. LSV Asset Management purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth about $44,000. Spurstone Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth about $126,000. Navigoe LLC purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth about $145,000. Vestment Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the 4th quarter worth about $264,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC lifted its holdings in Microsoft by 14.8% during the 4th quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 629 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $265,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on MSFT shares. Mizuho decreased their price objective on Microsoft from $510.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their price objective on Microsoft from $501.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 25th. Citigroup decreased their price target on Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Microsoft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $510.96.

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.