Microsoft Stock Is Moving Higher Tuesday: What's Going On?

Microsoft Corp MSFT shares are rising Tuesday after the tech giant raised its quarterly dividend and announced a new share repurchase program.

What Happened: After the market close on Monday, Microsoft announced that its board of directors raised its quarterly dividend 10% to 83 cents per share. The dividend is payable on Dec. 12 to shareholders of record as of Nov. 21.

Microsoft’s board also approved a new buyback program allowing the company to repurchase up to $60 billion of its common stock. The share repurchase program has no expiration and may be terminated at any time.

As of June 30, Microsoft had $75.5 billion in cash, cash equivalents and short term investments. The company is not due to report quarterly results again until sometime near the end of October, per Benzinga Pro.

Microsoft also scheduled its 2024 annual shareholders meeting for Dec. 10 this week. Shareholders of record as of Sept. 30 will be entitled to vote their shares.

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Is MSFT A Good Stock To Buy

An investor or trader's decision to buy or sell a stock is unique to their time horizon and risk tolerance. Many typical investors evaluate earnings growth and valuation on a particular stock before making a decision.

For example, for Microsoft, you'll notice that earnings in its last quarter grew 0.68%. As an investor, you'll want to decide whether that's better or worse than what you'd like to see among stocks in your portfolio.

On the valuation side, Microsoft's price to earnings ratio – a measure of how much an investor pays for the company's earnings – has grown 0.73% in the current quarter when compared with last year. That places it below similar businesses like Oracle, ServiceNow and Palo Alto Networks in its sector. You'll need to decide whether that makes it more or less attractive based on how you think the company will perform over time.

There are many different valuation metrics that may help you make a decision. Find more on Microsoft's quote page, or if you'd like a deeper dive in an advanced program, try Benzinga PRO for free.

MSFT Price Action: Microsoft shares were up 1.67% at $438.54 at the time of publication, according to Benzinga Pro.

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