Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.91 on June 11th

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, March 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 21st will be paid a dividend of 0.91 per share by the software giant on Thursday, June 11th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 21st.

Microsoft has raised its dividend payment by an average of 0.1%annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 23 years. Microsoft has a dividend payout ratio of 24.1% 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 $3.64 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 24.8%.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $404.88 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $430.65 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $477.49. The stock has a market cap of $3.01 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.32, a PEG ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. Microsoft has a 12 month low of $344.79 and a 12 month high of $555.45.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.86 by $0.28. Microsoft had a return on equity of 32.34% and a net margin of 39.04%.The business had revenue of $81.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $80.28 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.23 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Microsoft will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on MSFT. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $625.00 to $575.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. New Street Research lifted their price target on Microsoft from $670.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price objective on Microsoft from $630.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $586.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Microsoft from $630.00 to $615.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $591.95.

Microsoft Company Profile

Microsoft Corporation is a global technology company headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Microsoft develops, licenses and supports a broad range of software products, services and devices for consumers, enterprises and governments worldwide. Its operations span personal computing, productivity software, cloud infrastructure, enterprise applications, developer tools and gaming.

Microsoft’s product portfolio includes the Windows operating system and the Microsoft 365 suite of productivity and collaboration tools (Office apps, Outlook, Teams).