Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ MSFT) Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella is driving a new initiative to promote companywide diversity and equal pay a week after he made a public gaffe on advising women on getting a pay raise. Microsoft needs to “expand the diversity of our workforce at the senior ranks and re-double our efforts in college and other hiring,” Nadella wrote in the memo that was first reported by the tech blog GeekWire and confirmed by the Redmond, Washington-based company.

After his comment at on stage at the conference last week Nadella sought to make amends with a tweet followed by a statement. The dearth of female and minority engineers, startup founders and business leaders has been a sore point for female executives including Facebook Inc.’s Sheryl Sandberg as well as activists such as Jesse Jackson.

MSFT shares are currently priced at 15.71x this year’s forecasted earnings, which makes them relatively expensive compared to the industry’s 4.72x earnings multiple. And for income investors, the company pays shareholders $1.24 per share annually in dividends, yielding 2.80%.

Consensus earnings for the current quarter by the 21 sell-side analysts covering the stock is an estimate of $0.49 per share, which would be $0.13 worse than the year-ago quarter and a $0.15 sequential decrease. The full-year EPS estimate is $2.72, which would be a $0.09 better than last year.

News on Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ MSFT)

Microsoft Corporation develops, licenses, markets, and supports software, services, and devices worldwide. The company’s Devices and Consumer (D&C) Licensing segment licenses Windows operating system and related software; Microsoft Office for consumers; and Windows Phone operating system. Its Computing and Gaming Hardware segment provides Xbox gaming and entertainment consoles and accessories, second-party and third-party video games, and Xbox Live subscriptions; surface devices and accessories; and Microsoft PC accessories.

The company’s Phone Hardware segment offers Lumia Smartphones and other non-Lumia phones. Its D&C Other segment provides Windows Store, Xbox Live transactions, and Windows Phone Store; search advertising; display advertising; Office 365 Home and Office 365 Personal; first-party video games; and other consumer products and services, as well as operates retail stores.

The company’s Commercial Licensing segments licenses server products, including Windows Server, Microsoft SQL Server, Visual Studio, System Center, and related Client Access Licenses (CALs); Windows Embedded; Windows operating system; Microsoft Office for business, including Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, and related CALs; Microsoft Dynamics business solutions; and Skype.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ MSFT) Business News

Microsoft Corporation was founded in 1975 and is based in Redmond, Washington. Its Commercial Other segment offers enterprise services, including premier support services and Microsoft consulting services; commercial cloud comprising Office 365 Commercial, other Microsoft Office online offerings, Dynamics CRM Online, and Microsoft Azure; and other commercial products and online services. The company markets and distributes its products through original equipment manufacturers, distributors, and resellers, as well as online.

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