In the old days, it was exceptional for a tech stock to pay a dividend. That's because many companies in the sector weren't profitable in their early stages, and needed to save coin to maintain their businesses. The ones that became successful often stuck to that policy, choosing to prioritize activities like research and development. The hope was that investors would be satisfied simply with a rising stock price.
That's no longer the norm as the top tech companies on the scene are well-established, habitually profit-making, and frequently able to generate big piles of cash. Two incumbents that have declared dividend increases based on this solid foundation are International Business Machines (IBM 0.56%) and Qualcomm (QCOM 1.02%). Let's take a brief look at both.
1. IBM
IBM was a tech company before tech companies existed to any meaningful degree. Its origins stretch back to 1911 as a business selling recordkeeping and tabulation equipment for corporate clients. Very soon after that, it began paying a regular quarterly dividend, and it hasn't let up since.
These days it declares consistent, if incremental, dividend raises once annually. The 2024 version was a bump of $0.01 per share, as in previous years. IBM's new quarterly distribution is $1.67 per share.
Any business that has navigated all sorts of economies and emerged from more than one world war has done so by being flexible. Over the years, IBM's business has morphed -- it's been a leading manufacturer of personal computers, later it became a major player in the IT consultancy space, and these days it's concentrating on its hybrid cloud computing offerings and making a concentrated push into artificial intelligence (AI).
NYSE: IBM
Key Data Points
It's sensible to operate in these high-demand segments, and IBM as a company and a stock has generally been doing well. Yes, investors traded out of the shares following the company's latest quarterly earnings report, but that felt like a case of inflated expectations. The stock had zoomed nearly 50% higher over the past year, after all. IBM's revenue rose, if not spectacularly, while management did a fine job of lifting the bottom line.
I can see more future improvements in the fundamentals, especially in AI, where the company's consulting contracts are already worth over $1 billion. IBM is positioning itself to be a major force in this technology, and history shows it's usually successful when it marshals its considerable resources to attack a market.
IBM's dividend raise will take effect with the first $1.67-per-share payout, which is set to be distributed on June 10 to investors of record as of May 10. At the most recent closing share price, it would yield a relatively generous 4%.
2. Qualcomm
Qualcomm doesn't have the long history of IBM, but it's been a reliably regular quarterly dividend payer for more than 20 years. It matches IBM in its habit of declaring dividend raises every year, the latest being a 6% increase to $0.85 per share.
Qualcomm's main stock in trade is chipsets for smartphones. Given the company's very strong presence in this space, it's likely you've got its components packed into your beloved iPhone or Galaxy as we speak. Qualcomm is also active in the next-generation automotive market and the Internet of Things (IoT) sphere. Finally, it earns money from licensing its numerous patents.
Of these, it's the smartphone market that's the largest and sturdiest, and automotive that's growing the fastest. The company's just-released fiscal second-quarter results show 1% year-over-year growth in the phone segment to almost $6.2 billion. IoT, alas, isn't doing so hot; its top line slumped by 11% to $1.2 billion. Thankfully, licensing landed in positive territory with a 2% rise to $1.3 billion.
The automotive segment, on the other hand, really was quite the race car as far as revenue was concerned. Thanks to the success of its Snapdragon Ride assisted driving platform, the segment's take grew a powerful 35% to $603 million. Yes, that's a small portion of total company revenue now, but automobiles are rapidly becoming more sophisticated, and reliable tech is sorely needed for smartening them up.
NASDAQ: QCOM
Key Data Points
So in short, Qualcomm is still managing to squeeze out growth from its two traditional business lines. And despite that flagging IoT business, automotive is hot and sure to get hotter. This is a well-established company with good technology that should become an important player in that dynamic sector. The future continues to look bright for Qualcomm.
The company's new dividend is to be handed out on June 20 to stockholders of record as of May 30. The payout would yield 1.9% on the current share price.
