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

Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, March 11th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be given a dividend of 0.83 per share by the software giant on Thursday, June 12th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.87%.

Microsoft has increased its dividend by an average of 10.2% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 23 years. Microsoft has a payout ratio of 22.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities 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 Stock Up 0.0 %

MSFT traded up $0.04 on Wednesday, hitting $380.49. The company had a trading volume of 5,095,011 shares, compared to its average volume of 23,050,904. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $414.68 and a 200-day simple moving average of $421.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.83 trillion, a P/E ratio of 30.67, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.92. Microsoft has a 52-week low of $376.91 and a 52-week high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The software giant reported $3.23 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 period in the previous year, the business earned $2.93 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Microsoft will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSFT has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. DA Davidson restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $425.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $509.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $509.54.

Institutional Trading of Microsoft

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. LSV Asset Management purchased a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at $44,000. Spurstone Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 4th quarter valued at about $126,000. Navigoe LLC bought a new position in shares of Microsoft in the 4th quarter valued at about $145,000. Vestment Financial LLC purchased a new position in Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth about $264,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC increased its stake in Microsoft by 14.8% during the fourth quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 629 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $265,000 after acquiring an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.