Sizing Up Microsoft's Payout

Big tech companies sit on mountains of cash, and investors continue to clamor for a bigger chunk of it. The world's No. 1 software manufacturer, Microsoft had $86 billion in cash at last count. Founded in 1975, the company declared its first-ever dividend in January 2003 at the rate of eight cents a share and has disbursed a richer payout every year since. The new quarterly will be 31 cents a share versus 28 cents, which computes to an additional $989 million yearly for investors and an annual payout of $10.2 billion overall at the new rate. A component of the Dow Jones industrials, Nasdaq-traded Microsoft shares, which are up 26% this year, set a new 52-week high of $47.19 on Friday. With the new dividend, the stock yields 2.64%.