Dividend Investing: 3 Reasons to Like Microsoft Corporation

When it comes to dividend investing, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) stock usually isn’t at the top of investors’ lists. Actually, tech stocks in general aren’t usually a sector for dividend investors to mine since companies tend to plow their earnings back into the business to grow. However, old dog MSFT stock is so big now that it can grow at a decent pace and reward shareholders with a hefty dividend at the same time.

Microsoft has been paying out a dividend to investors since 2003, increasing it every year for the last six years. Microsoft’s dividend growth is also impressive. Over the past decade, Microsoft’s dividend growth rate has been 14.7% per year; during the last five years, that growth rate was 18.9% per year, growing from $0.16 per share to $0.36 per share. It will be hard for Microsoft to keep up that growth pace in dividends, but rest assured, MSFT stock has more than enough cash on hand to dish out the dividends. Microsoft has more than $100 billion in cash and short-term investments on hand, according to its balance sheet in its latest earnings report. So, Microsoft should be able to increase them every year for the next few years at least.

Source: Profit Confidential

Related Articles:
- 6 Dividend Stocks Trading at a Double-Digit Discount
- 5 Best U.S. Dividend Growth Stocks
- 5 Low P/E Value-Stocks, Yielding 2% Or Higher
- How Much Money Will You Need To Retire?
- Seeding A Forest Of Dividend Growth Stocks