Yes
If a shareholder owns five shares of MSFT, and MSFT pays a one dollar dividend, the shareholder will receive five dollars. Dividends can be company and growth-specific. Rapidly growing companies (technology) often do not offer dividends; the cash is expected to invest in other business projects that fuel more growth. Nevertheless, its decision to pay an annual dividend of 16 cents a share will only cost the company about $870 million (€817.1m). Microsoft chief financial officer John Connors said that the company had decided to pay a dividend for two reasons. Microsoft to pay dividend for first time in its history. Microsoft has said it will pay shareholders a dividend for the first time in its history, a move that will put pressure on other computer companies to follow suit. Posted by Information Age. REDMOND, Wash. — Sept. 15, 2015 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that its board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.36 per share, reflecting a five cent increase, or 16.1 percent, over the previous quarter’s dividend. The dividend is payable December 10, 2015 to shareholders of record on November 19, 2015. This goes a long way toward its ability to pay hefty dividends to shareholders. On a per-share basis, Microsoft produced $2.20 per share in free cash flow over the last nine months, and paid just $0.84 per share in dividends during this time. Microsoft has nearly $85 billion in cash in the bank and only paid $9 billion in common dividends last year. So the company easily has the cash to pay the dividend. However, Microsoft has most of its cash abroad and would have to pay a 35% penalty on any repatriated funds. The company is producing enough cash-free cash flow to continue Last week, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) investors were treated to another dividend increase. This time the company raised its per-share payout from $0.28 to $0.31 per quarter -- good for a 10.7% increase.
https://ycharts.com/companies/MSFT/dividend http://www.information-age.com/industry/uk-industry/294386/microsoft-to-pay-dividend-for-first-time-in-its-history http://www.information-age.com/industry/uk-industry/294386/microsoft-to-pay-dividend-for-first-time-in-its-history http://news.microsoft.com/2015/09/15/microsoft-announces-increase-in-quarterly-dividend/ http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/05/20/why-microsoft-is-a-fantastic-dividend-stock.aspx http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/09/23/3-reasons-why-microsoft-is-a-top-dividend-stock.aspx http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/09/23/3-reasons-why-microsoft-is-a-top-dividend-stock.aspx
does msft pay dividends