Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Board of Directors Declares Stock Repurchase Program

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Monday, September 16th, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the software giant to reacquire up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSFT has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on Microsoft from $475.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 13th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 price target on shares of Microsoft in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. New Street Research started coverage on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Monday, June 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $570.00 price objective on the stock. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Microsoft from $450.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, June 7th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Microsoft from $520.00 to $510.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $494.72.

Microsoft Stock Performance

Shares of MSFT opened at $435.27 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.24 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.69, a PEG ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 1.27. Microsoft has a one year low of $309.45 and a one year high of $468.35. The business has a fifty day moving average of $420.92 and a 200 day moving average of $424.03.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $2.95 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.90 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $64.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.38 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.96% and a return on equity of 35.95%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.69 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Microsoft will post 13.04 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is presently 25.97%.

Insider Transactions at Microsoft

In other news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 78,353 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $408.63, for a total transaction of $32,017,386.39. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 864,327 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $353,189,942.01. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CFO Amy Hood sold 38,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $410.55, for a total value of $15,600,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 496,369 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $203,784,292.95. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 78,353 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $408.63, for a total value of $32,017,386.39. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 864,327 shares in the company, valued at approximately $353,189,942.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 190,629 shares of company stock worth $77,916,485 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.