Microsoft’s FY2026 cash allocation combined substantial dividends and buybacks with a sharp rise in investing cash use. Adobe’s latest filed FY2026 figures cover only the first nine months and show large repurchases alongside acquisition-related investment. The periods do not line up, so the reported dollar totals describe each company’s activity—not a like-for-like ranking.
What the reported figures show
The figures below come from company filings and releases. Microsoft’s fiscal year ended June 30, 2026; Adobe’s latest filing covers the nine months ended August 28, 2026. “Cash used in investing” is a cash-flow category, not a direct measure of organic growth spending.
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| Company and period | Share repurchases | Dividends | Investing cash flow | Operating cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft, FY2026 ended June 30, 2026 | $16.7 billion repurchased [Microsoft FY2026 Form 10-K] | $27.0 billion declared [Microsoft FY2026 Form 10-K] | $139.5 billion used [Microsoft FY2026 Form 10-K] | not stated in the cited figures |
| Adobe, first nine months of FY2026 ended August 28, 2026 | $6.820 billion repurchased [Adobe FY2026 third-quarter Form 10-Q] | not stated in the cited Form 10-Q figures | $1.908 billion used [Adobe FY2026 third-quarter Form 10-Q] | $7.646 billion generated [Adobe FY2026 third-quarter Form 10-Q] |
The table does not establish that Adobe paid no dividends: the cited current-period figures do not provide a dividend total. Nor should Adobe’s nine-month amounts be annualized as if they were reported full-year results.
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Microsoft: dividends and repurchases alongside rising investment
In FY2026 Microsoft both returned cash directly to shareholders and devoted a much larger amount to investing activities. It repurchased $16.7 billion of stock and declared $27.0 billion in dividends. At June 30, $40.6 billion remained available under its $60 billion repurchase program; that remaining authorization is capacity, not a promise to spend it.
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Microsoft’s cash used in investing was $139.5 billion, up $66.9 billion from FY2025. In its annual report, the company attributed the increase primarily to $51.4 billion more in additions to property and equipment and $22.2 billion more cash used in other investing, primarily to facilitate component purchases. Lower outlays for acquisitions and investment purchases partly offset those increases. The investing total therefore should not be described simply as capital expenditure or organic growth investment.
Microsoft presents continued cloud and AI infrastructure investment as part of its strategic context. That is management’s description of the business rationale; the cash-flow totals alone do not establish the eventual returns on those investments.
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Adobe: nine-month buybacks and acquisition-led investment
For the first nine months of FY2026, Adobe reported $7.646 billion of operating cash flow, $1.908 billion of net cash used in investing activities, and $6.814 billion of net cash used in financing activities. Adobe said financing cash use was primarily attributable to share repurchases. It attributed investing cash use to the Semrush acquisition, ongoing capital expenditures, and investment purchases net of maturities.
Adobe repurchased $6.820 billion of shares in that nine-month period. It also fully used the $25 billion authorization approved in March 2024. A further $25 billion authorization was approved in April 2026, with $24.55 billion still available under it at the end of the reported period. The new authorization runs through April 30, 2030, but an authorization is not a commitment: management may choose whether and when to repurchase shares.
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In its June 11, 2026 Q2 release, Adobe chair and CEO Shantanu Narayen characterized the results this way: “Adobe delivered record revenue of $6.62 billion in Q2 reflecting strong AI-driven demand across our customer groups and we are raising our full-year fiscal 2026 revenue and non-GAAP EPS targets on the strength of that performance.” Adobe reported Q2 revenue of $6.62 billion, up 13% year over year; the demand and outlook language is the CEO’s assessment, not independent verification of future performance. [Adobe Q2 FY2026 earnings release]
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to interpret shareholder returns and investment
- Separate payout types. Dividends provide a cash distribution to shareholders; repurchases are purchases of shares. Microsoft’s cited FY2026 figures show both. Adobe’s cited nine-month filing foregrounds repurchases, but does not establish a current-period dividend total.
- Distinguish spending from permission to spend. Repurchases reported as completed are actual cash use. An unused authorization is board-approved capacity that can be altered or left unused.
- Do not treat gross buybacks as net share reduction. Repurchases can offset employee share issuance or reduce shares outstanding. Gross dollars repurchased alone do not show net dilution or the change in share count; that requires comparing issuance, repurchases, and share-count disclosures.
- Do not infer investment quality from cash outflow. Investing cash flow can include property and equipment, acquisitions, investment purchases, and other uses. The category and composition matter, and a large outlay is not itself evidence of a high or low return.
Accordingly, these figures support a structural comparison—Microsoft’s cited mix includes a very large recurring dividend alongside buybacks and high investing cash use, while Adobe’s latest cited period is centered on repurchases and acquisition-related investment. They do not determine which company has the better allocation policy or which stock will deliver more value. That assessment would require aligned reporting periods and analysis of returns on investment, repurchase prices, net share-count change, and future cash generation.
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