The

Dow Jones Industrial Average

(

^DJI

) is trading up 133 points (+1.1%) at 12,765 as of Wednesday, Feb 1, 2012, 12:40 p.m. ET. During this time, 475.5 million shares of the 30 Dow components have changed hands vs. an average daily trading volume of 818.6 million. The NYSE advances/declines ratio sits at 2,540 issues advancing vs. 419 declining with 76 unchanged.

The Dow component leading the way higher looks to be

Microsoft Corporation

(Nasdaq:

MSFT

), which is sporting a 41-cent gain (+1.4%) bringing the stock to $29.94. This single gain is lifting the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 3.1 points or roughly accounting for 2.3% of the Dow's overall gain. Volume for Microsoft Corporation currently sits at 40.8 million shares traded vs. an average daily trading volume of 55.1 million shares.

Microsoft Corporation has a market cap of $246.19 billion and is part of the

technology

sector and

computer software & services

industry. Shares are up 14.1% year to date as of Tuesday's close. The stock's dividend yield sits at 2.7%.

Microsoft Corporation develops, licenses, and supports a range of software products and services for various computing devices worldwide. The company has a P/E ratio of 10.7, equal to the average computer software & services industry P/E ratio and below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7.

TheStreet Ratings rates Microsoft Corporation as a

buy

. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures, attractive valuation levels, good cash flow from operations and solid stock price performance. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had sub par growth in net income.

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