Slashdot Mirror
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."
Pay attention to the Forward Looking Statement..
"the availability of competitive products or services such as the Linux operating system at prices below our prices or for no charge; "
These are the actions of a company that realizes they are no longer a growth stock and is no longer looking to finance things via the market but rather reward consistent investors and enter into a "slow, continuous growth" mode instead of acting like a start-up. Investors will like quarterly dividends and the buyback will shore up the flagging stock price.
Now, if only Cisco would buyback their stock (way too many shares floating), start expensing their options like a proper company and start paying some dividends, maybe they could be considered a grown-up stock as well.
Microsoft is great at one thing; making money. Unfortunately, being good at making money doesn't necessarily mean they have to be good at making software (at least considering how they've gone about it).
I used to have Microsoft stock, but one day I opened my portfolio and all the certificates had turned blue with incomprehensible writing on them. When I called my broker he assured me everything was all right, it was all a part of doing business and that I should put the stocks back in my old shoe where I stored them. So...I rebooted...
- Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
seriously how many /.actually have MS stock.
There is a very good chance that anyone with mutual fund investments in growth funds that deal in mid-to-large-cap stocks will own a bit of Microsoft. Since I'm guessing there are quite a few people who are gainfully employed reading Slashdot that are probably younger, probably have a 401k, and probably are choosing longer-term investment options to grow their money, I would bet a significant percentage of (the gainfully employed) Slashdotters own a chunk of Microsoft, whether they realize it or not.
I can't give you exact figures, but I know that I indirectly own a little chunk of Microsoft and I'm guessing a lot of other people here do too.
Free yourself. Everything else will follow.
Sure thing:
. asp
1 - Windows Client, including the Microsoft® Windows® XP desktop operating system, Windows 2000, and Windows Embedded operating system.
2 - Information Worker, including Microsoft Office, Microsoft Publisher, Microsoft Visio®, Microsoft Project, and other stand-alone desktop applications.
3 - Microsoft Business Solutions, encompassing Great Plains and Navision business process applications, and bCentral(TM) business services.
4 - Server and Tools, including the Microsoft Windows Server System(TM) integrated server software, software developer tools, and MSDN®.
5 - Mobile and Embedded Devices, featuring mobile devices including the Windows Powered Pocket PC, the Mobile Explorer microbrowser, and the Windows Powered Smartphone software platform.
6 - MSN, including the MSN® network, MSN Internet Access, MSNTV, MSN Hotmail® and other Web-based services.
7 - Home and Entertainment, including Microsoft Xbox®, consumer hardware and software, online games, and our TV platform.
It's how the corporation is structured from a business perspective. http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/articles/business
If, however, you're not sure whether President Bush will continue to tax long-term capital gains and qualified dividends at 15%, or President Kerry will demand that Congress undo the tax cuts, resulting in marginal tax rates on long-term capital gains of 20%, and all dividents at up to 39%, blowing some of those reserves on one-time dividends and buybacks over the next 12 months is a pretty good idea.
Google for "special dividends", and you'll see that a lot of companies are doing this sort of thing (one-time "special" dividends of 5-10%, rather than merely raising their dividend by a few cents per share indefinitely) these days. You'll also notice that the trend started in the past six months -- right about the time people realized that the election is shaping up to be a statistical dead heat.