Microsoft went ex-dividend (the date a stock begins trading without its next dividend) on August 20, 2026, at $0.91 per share, with $6,757,245,950 payable to holders of record on September 10. It was the largest distribution among 26 companies going ex-dividend that day, far exceeding Applied Materials’ $420,798,270. Marriott, SBA Communications and LKQ also went ex-dividend. For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2026, Microsoft reported $115.948 billion in capital expenditures, up from $64,551,000,000, and $26.445 billion in dividends paid. Operating cash flow was $182.935 billion, although free cash flow declined 6.46% year over year. Microsoft has paid $0.91 per share for four consecutive quarters, with ex-dates on November 20, 2025, February 19, 2026, May 21, 2026 and August 20, 2026. The board declared last year’s increase from $0.83 to $0.91 on September 15, 2025, making the timing of this year’s September announcement a focus for income investors. CFO Amy Hood said Microsoft returned “over $43 billion” to shareholders during the fiscal year and expected to “remain free cash flow positive in FY27,” while warning that fiscal 2027 capital expenditures “will grow year over year” and could approach approximately $175 billion after an operating-lease shift. Microsoft’s spending exceeded that of Amazon, Alphabet and Meta, while it continued paying the largest dividend. Its shares closed at $481.15 on August 20, 2026, down 3.91% over one year but up 0.12% year to date, with a 21.2% one-month gain. Azure annual revenue surpassed $100 billion, Copilot exceeded 30 million paid seats and commercial RPO reached $678 billion, up 84%.