Microsoft made its shareholders happy

Microsoft will increase its quarterly dividend by 11% and launch a new $ 60 billion share buyback program. The dividend will be $ 0.62 per share, up $ 0.06 from the previous quarter. Dividends will be paid on December 9 to shareholders from the register as of November 18. The share buyback program approved by Microsoft’s board of directors does not have a specific expiry date and may be terminated at any time. The company has set the AGM for November 30th. It will be held online. The indicative dividend yield on Microsoft shares is 0.85% per annum. The company began paying dividends in 2003, while the annual shareholder payments are constantly growing. Thus, Microsoft’s first dividend was only 8 cents per quarter. The company has paid its shareholders 56 cents a share for the past four quarters and is now starting to pay 62 cents a share, which is not bad for a tech sector.

Microsoft has a unique business model and a highly sought-after product line. We consider Microsoft to be one of the best high-tech companies that can significantly benefit from the growing demand for cloud services and cybersecurity services. Technological excellence should help Microsoft become the leading hybrid cloud company and capitalize on the digitalization of corporate infrastructure as more enterprises seek to modernize their IT assets and move to cloud services. We believe that Azure cloud services will remain the main driver of business growth in the long term. Microsoft for the fourth financial quarter returned $ 10.4 billion to shareholders in the form of dividend payments and buybacks of its shares, which is 16% more than the amount spent for these purposes in the same period last year. We were impressed with Microsoft’s results, so we revised our valuation of the company from $ 310 to $ 320 per share.

Microsoft is one of the world’s leading technology companies. Since 1975, it has been developing, manufacturing, licensing, selling and providing software support for a variety of computing hardware, mobile devices and game consoles. Among the most famous products of the company, it is worth noting the Windows operating system and the Office software suite, as well as Azure cloud services. The only competitor to the Xbox game console is Sony PlayStation. The company also manufactures mobile phones, tablets and digital music entertainment devices. Microsoft owns LinkedIn, a social network that helps millions of users to establish business contacts. Microsoft customers include both individuals and corporate customers, as well as government agencies. Almost half of the corporation’s revenue is generated within the United States.