Microsoft Corp. (MSFT US) rose in premarket trading after boosting its dividend by 10% and unveiling a $60 billion stock-buyback program overnight. However, like much of the market, it surrendered ts early strength ahead of the Fed. This was another example of phenomenal numbers being delivered from a “Super Six” US tech stock:
- MSFT declared a quarterly dividend of $US0.83 per share, a 10% increase over the previous quarter’s dividend.
- The board also approved a new share repurchase program authorising up to $US60 billion ($A88bn) in share repurchases.
To put things into perspective, this buyback alone equates to the entire market cap of Macquarie Group (MQG) or Wesfarmers (WES).
- MSFT is the equal-largest US holding in MM’s o/s portfolio and we see no reason to change this – MM is long MSFT in its International Companies Portfolio.