Microsoft

saw its share rise after the company announced plans to buyback shares and raise its quarterly dividend.

Microsoft shares moved higher Wednesday after the world’s second-largest tech company unveiled plans to boost its quarterly dividend and buyback additional shares.

Microsoft said it will pay a 62 cents per share dividend from its fourth quarter earnings, an 11 per cent increase from its previous level, payable to shareholders of record on Nov. 18 and announced plans for a perpetual $60 billion (U.S.) buyback program.

The Redmond, Wash.-based tech giant also named Brad Smith, its chief legal counsel, to the position of vice-chair, making his the second-highest ranked employee behind chair and CEO Satya Nadella.

Microsoft shares were marked 1.3 per cent higher in early trading to change hands at $303.26 each, a move that would extend the stock’s yearto-date gain to around 36 per cent and put it within touching distance of the all-time-high of $305.84 it reached on August 20.

It closed at $304.82 in New York.

Microsoft, which topped Street forecasts in its record fourth quarter earnings report in July, has gained nearly 30 per cent since hitting a six-month trough in early April, with investors praising the group’s market-leading cloud computing division amid the shift to at-home and hybrid work models by companies around the world and the hyper growth of its new Azure business.

Azure, in fact, is forecast to lead Microsoft’s near-term gains following a 51 per cent surge in fourth quarter revenue that paced a 21 per cent increase in the group’s overall $46.2 billion top line.