Microsoft Announces Dividend and Stock Buyback Program

neile writes "Microsoft just announced some of their plans for their large cash reserves. This includes moving to quarterly dividend payments of $0.08 a share (up from $0.16 annually), and a special one-time dividend of $3.00 a share in December. The Board of Directors also approved a four-year, $30 billion, stock buyback plan."

Comments

Outstanding

[PhreakinPenguin]

I knew I bought their stock for a reason. I know I will get modded down for this or flamed but you'll never see a company like Redhat do this. Regardless of your opinion of MS, this is a good move to reward stockholders.

Re:Outstanding

[tux_deamon]

No, most tech companies don't pay dividends, rather they reinvest their profits (would they ever see them) into R&D. Most tech shareholders bank on the speculation that the share value will increase as the company grows very quickly.

Paying a dividend is usally something only mature companies do when growth slows down. Microsoft is one of the few tech companies that pays a large dividend.

Re:Outstanding

[tux_deamon]

Well, there are mutual funds dedicated to investing in socially conscious/socially responsible corporations. Your bank/investment advisor can probably give you some more information.

But here's a directory worth looking at

Interestingly, one of the pioneers of the movement is US VP Candidate Peter Camejo.

The general idea is to invest in companies with good track records in the areas of human rights, labor, business ethics, the environment, etc.

Got to be a catch in their someplace

[Marxist Hacker 42]

Oh yeah- the catch is Bill Gates Sr. He's always taught his son that vast accumulation of wealth was bad for the economy overall. The one redeeming factor of the Gates family has always been small estates (for the socioeconomic class they're in anyway- MY parents can't afford to give me a $100,000 loan to drop out of college and start a business). Maybe Bill Gates Jr. finally convinced his board what his father always taught him.

Re:Got to be a catch in their someplace

[blackmonday]

His dad's a real interesting guy. He's a big supporter of inheritance taxes. if I remember correctly, he believes society got you where you are, so you need to give back when you go away.

Won't affect current reserves.

[BigGar']

I was thinking that I'd read that Microsoft was cleaning about 1 billion per month. If that's accurate and continues the stock buy back would not affect cuurent cash reserves only slow the rate it builds. That would result in a reserve growth of 18 billion over the next 4 years instead of 48 billion, while at the same time reducing the number of publicly held shares which will probably up the stock price.