On 10 December 2026, Microsoft will pay $0.98 in cash for every share its owners hold. Its board announced the payment on 15 September. That is 7.7% more than the $0.91 it paid each quarter over the past year.
That payment is a dividend. This guide explains what a dividend is, when it is paid and how it is worked out. It then follows Microsoft's dividend through its official reports, from the dates to the growth.
What is a dividend? A dividend is cash a company pays to its shareholders out of its profits, as a fixed amount for each share they own. The company's board decides whether to pay one, how much and when.
To get the next dividend, you must buy the share before a cut-off called the ex-dividend date. The cash arrives a few weeks later.
Microsoft pays four times a year. Four payments of $0.98 come to $3.92 a share, which is 0.79% of its share price on 24 September 2026.
Dividends are never guaranteed. A board can cut them, as Shell did in April 2020, when it cut its quarterly dividend by about 2/3.
What is a dividend?
A company that makes a profit can keep it to spend on the business. It can also hand some of it back to its owners, the shareholders. A dividend is one way to do that. It is a cash payment of a fixed amount for each share. We explain what a share gives you in What Is a Stock?
The board of directors decides. This is the group the shareholders elect to oversee the company. It sets the amount and the dates. A company has no duty to pay a dividend at all. The other main way to return cash is a share buyback, where the company buys its own shares from the market. Microsoft does both.
A board can pick any schedule. Microsoft pays quarterly.
When do dividends get paid? The four key dates
Every dividend comes with a set of dates. Here they are for Microsoft's next payment:
Announcement date (also called the declaration date): the board announces the amount and the dates. For this dividend, 15 September 2026.
Ex-dividend date: the cut-off. Buy the share on or after this date and you do not get this dividend. The seller does. Here, 19 November 2026.
Record date: the company takes its list of shareholders. Owners on the list that day are paid. Also 19 November 2026.
Payment date: the cash arrives. Here, 10 December 2026.
Source: Microsoft Investor Relations
The chart puts the dates on one line. From announcement to payment takes 86 days. The ex-dividend date and the record date fall on the same day.
The two dates match because of how US share trades complete. A trade completes one business day after you buy. A buyer on 19 November becomes the owner on 20 November. That is too late for the list.
How dividends are calculated
The sum is simple: the dividend per share times the number of shares you own. Hold 100 Microsoft shares on 19 November and you receive $98 on 10 December, before any tax. Tax rules differ by country. We cover the UK and US in How Are Dividends Taxed?
The dividend yield compares a year's dividends with the share price. Microsoft's four payments of $0.98 add up to $3.92 a year. Its share price was $497.93 on 24 September 2026. So the yield is $3.92 divided by $497.93, or 0.79%.
Yields are quoted two ways. A forward yield, like the one above, uses the latest rate. A trailing yield uses the dividends of the past year. Microsoft's last four payments of $0.91 give a trailing yield of 0.73%.
How Microsoft's dividend has grown since 2008
Microsoft's financial year, called its fiscal year, ends on 30 June. So fiscal 2026 ran from July 2025 to June 2026. Each bar below adds up the dividends declared in one fiscal year. The figures come from Microsoft's annual reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the US market regulator.
Source: Microsoft Form 10-K filings (SEC XBRL); YX Insights
Microsoft declared $0.44 a share in fiscal 2008 and $3.64 in fiscal 2026. That is about 8.3 times as much, or growth of 12.5% a year. Over the past five years, it grew 10.2% a year.
The only flat year is fiscal 2010, when the total matched fiscal 2009's $0.52. Since then, the board has raised the quarterly dividend every September, 17 years in a row. Microsoft has not cut its quarterly dividend since it started paying one in 2004.
How much of its profit Microsoft pays out
Profit per share is also called earnings per share, or EPS. We use diluted EPS, which also counts shares that staff stock awards could still create. The payout ratio is the dividend per share divided by EPS. It shows how much of the profit goes out as dividends.
Source: Microsoft Form 10-K filings (SEC XBRL); YX Insights
In fiscal 2019, Microsoft earned $5.06 a share and declared $1.84 in dividends. That is a payout ratio of 36%. By fiscal 2026, profit per share was $17.95, about 3.5 times as much. The dividend rose to $3.64, about twice as much. So the payout ratio fell to 20%.
Profit per share in fiscal 2026 was about five times the dividend. Profit would have to fall a long way before it no longer covered the payment. The rest of the profit stays in the business or funds buybacks. In fiscal 2026, Microsoft paid $26.4 billion in dividends. It spent $22.3 billion buying back its own shares.
Dividend risks: cuts, price drops and high yields
Cuts. A board can cut or stop a dividend at any time. On 30 April 2020, Shell cut its quarterly dividend to $0.16 a share, from $0.47 the quarter before. That is a fall of 66%. Its board cited weaker commodity prices and an uncertain outlook for demand after the pandemic hit.
The price drop. A buyer on the ex-dividend date no longer gets the payment. So the share price can fall that day. The SEC's investor website puts it this way. "With a significant dividend, the price of a stock may fall by that amount on the ex-dividend date." The dividend moves value out of the share and into the owner's cash.
High yields. A yield rises when the dividend rises. It also rises when the share price falls. If the dividend is then cut, the high yield disappears with it.
How to read a company's dividend
Check the dates. You must buy the share before the ex-dividend date to get the next payment.
Check which yield is shown. A forward yield uses the latest rate. A trailing yield uses the past year.
Check the payout ratio. It shows how much of the profit the dividend uses up.
Count dividends in returns. Your return is what you gain from owning a share: the price change plus any dividends. A plain price chart leaves the dividends out. Our return figures say "with dividends counted" when they include them.
A dividend is cash from a company's profit, paid per share on dates its board sets. Microsoft's shows how it works in practice: a yield of 0.79%, a payment raised every September since 2010 and a payout of about 20% of profit.
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