NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Microsoft  (MSFT) - Get Report are climbing, up 0.62% to $42.29 in early market trading Wednesday, after the software company announced that its board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of 31 cents per share late yesterday.

Microsoft said the dividend is payable on June 11 to shareholders of record on May 21, 2015. The ex-dividend date is scheduled for May 19, 2015.

Redmond, WA-based Microsoft is engaged in developing, licensing and supporting a range of software products and services. 

The company offers operating system software, server application software, business and consumer applications software, software development tools, and Internet and intranet software. In addition, Microsoft develops video game consoles and digital music entertainment devices.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates MICROSOFT CORP as a Buy with a ratings score of B+. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate MICROSOFT CORP (MSFT) a BUY. This is driven by a few notable strengths, which we believe should have a greater impact than any weaknesses, and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks we cover. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, reasonable valuation levels, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures, solid stock price performance and expanding profit margins. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had sub par growth in net income."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

• Despite its growing revenue, the company underperformed as compared with the industry average of 10.4%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 8.0%. This growth in revenue does not appear to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, displayed by a decline in earnings per share.
• Despite currently having a low debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, it is higher than that of the industry average, inferring that management of debt levels may need to be evaluated further. Despite the fact that MSFT's debt-to-equity ratio is mixed in its results, the company's quick ratio of 2.24 is high and demonstrates strong liquidity.
• Compared to where it was a year ago today, the stock is now trading at a higher level, regardless of the company's weak earnings results. Turning our attention to the future direction of the stock, it goes without saying that even the best stocks can fall in an overall down market. However, in any other environment, this stock still has good upside potential despite the fact that it has already risen in the past year.
• The gross profit margin for MICROSOFT CORP is rather high; currently it is at 67.45%. Regardless of MSFT's high profit margin, it has managed to decrease from the same period last year. Despite the mixed results of the gross profit margin, the net profit margin of 22.14% trails the industry average.
• You can view the full analysis from the report here: MSFT Ratings Report