Investing.com -- Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced on Tuesday afternoon that its Board of Directors has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.36 per share, reflecting an increase of five cents, or 16.1 percent, over the previous quarter’s dividend.
The dividend is payable on December 10, 2015 to shareholders of record on November 19, 2015, while the ex-dividend date will be on November 17, 2015, the company said in a statement. Over the last four quarters, Microsoft has paid a dividend of 0.31, up from 0.28 during each quarter in 2014. A year earlier, the company paid out a dividend of 0.23 a share during Fiscal Year 2013. As of mid-April, the tech giant had more than 8.089 million shares outstanding.
The quarterly dividend increase represents one of the company's largest over the last decade. For a five-year period from 2004 through 2008, Microsoft increased its quarterly dividend by one cent on an annual basis. In the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2009, the Redmond, Washington-based company boosted its quarterly dividend by two cents from 0.11 to 0.13. Quarterly dividends remained unchanged in 2010, before rising by three cents a year later and by four cents in 2012. Microsoft decreased quarterly dividends back to 0.03 in 2013 before raising them back by 0.05 in the first quarter of Fiscal Year of 2014.
The announcement comes one day after reports surfaced that Microsoft could launch its Surface Pro 4, as well as two other handsets at a media event in New York on October 6. On Tuesday, Microsoft gained 0.94 or 2.14% to close at 43.98, ending the day as one of the top performers on the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Shares in Microsoft fell mildly by 0.07 or 0.16% in after-hours trading to 43.91.