The Case for Raising Microsoft's Dividend
After Microsoft reported profits and sales improved over last year and beat analyst estimates Thursday, one shareholder was left asking: Where is my dividend?
The world's largest software maker has plenty of room on the balance sheet to double the dividend, says Ironfire Capital President and Microsoft investor Eric Jackson. Earlier this week, it was rumored that the company would raise the dividend by eight cents. He says such an increase would be a drop in the bucket, but also thinks it's the hope for a dividend increase that helped push the stock higher.
Although said to have been looking at Yahoo! , Jackson doesn't think Microsoft has the capability to integrate another company. But with strong products, like Office and Windows 7, Johnson thinks the stock is "horribly" undervalued.
As a derivative to Microsoft, Karen Finerman of Metropolitan Capital Advisors likes New York-based Corning . She says the company is increasing capacity in LCD display space. The company says penetration is great in the US markets, but thinks China has the best potential for growth overall.
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