Microsoft Corp. this week announced the largest share buyback in its history, totaling $60 billion, and also increased its quarterly dividend by 10%. All investors who hold Microsoft shares as of November 21 of this year will be able to apply for them.
Image source: Microsoft
The dividend will increase from 75 to 83 cents per share. In the case of a share repurchase program, things are not so straightforward. In fact, the corporation simply replaced the previous repurchase program for the same amount of $60 billion, which was announced in 2021, with a new one that does not provide an end date. The company, which is a major investor in OpenAI and one of the main beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence boom, is second only to Apple in its capitalization, and by a modest $82 billion.
Since the beginning of the year, Microsoft shares have risen in price by 31%, news of the upcoming buyout raised their value after the close of trading by another 1% at most. They finished the main trading session yesterday at $431.34 per share. As of June 30 of this year, the corporation had $75.5 billion of available funds in cash and in the form of highly liquid assets. Free cash flow for the quarter increased year-on-year by 18% to $23.3 billion. According to company representatives, it is now actively investing in the development of cloud infrastructure and artificial intelligence systems.