Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced that their board of directors has approved a share repurchase program that authorizes $40 billion in share purchases. The share repurchases expires on September 30, 2013. After declaring the share repurchase, the board also announced a quarterly dividend of $0.13 per share. This is two cents (18%) higher than the previous quarter’s dividend.
“These announcements illustrate our confidence in the long-term growth of the company and our commitment to returning capital to our shareholders,” stated Chris Liddell, CFO of Microsoft. S&P rated Microsoft corporate credit ratings of AAA and Aaa. About a month ago, an analyst at UBS predicted that Microsoft would buy back about $20 billion.
The last time that Microsoft authorized a transaction this large was when the company made a bid to acquired Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) on February 1st.