Microsoft reportedly plans $20 billion stock buyback
Seattle PI | at | by Mike
Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, whose failed bid for Yahoo Inc. helped drive the stock down 17 percent since February, is about to make it up to shareholders with a buyback of as much as $20 billion, according to a top-rated software analyst.
Investors should buy now, while Microsoft is trading at the lowest estimated price-earnings ratio since the world's largest software maker went public 22 years ago, said Heather Bellini of UBS AG, who was ranked the best software analyst by Institutional Investor magazine in 2007. She expects Microsoft to complete the repurchase -- at least five times larger than its average per quarter in the last fiscal year -- over the next three months.