The nip and tuck race to a trillion dollar valuation seems to be firmly in Microsoft’s control, at least for the time being. The company hit the $1 trillion market cap benchmark last Friday, and unlike previous encounters where the valuation just touched the mark (with 7.66 billion shares outstanding, Microsoft’s stock price needs to be just above $130 to get to a trillion dollar market cap), the stock price has stayed above the mark for most of the week. That’s good news for investors in the stock, who received some more good news yesterday as Microsoft announced its latest quarterly dividend.
The $.46 per share dividend, to be paid to shareholders of record on August 15th, is in line with recent dividend payouts (the last four quarters paid dividends of 46, 46, 46, and 42 cents per share), and is further testament to the continued health of the company. Hitting a trillion dollar market cap is noteworthy, but piling up continued successes over a period of years is what investors are really looking for, and right now, Microsoft is a good investment.
