Qualcomm raises dividend, boosting stock's yield above 2%

By Tomi Kilgore

Qualcomm's stock is the 12th of the 64 members of the S&P 500's tech sector to yield more than 2%

Qualcomm Inc. said Tuesday that it will raise its quarterly dividend, enough to make the semiconductor company's stock one of the few in the technology sector to yield more than 2%.

The quarterly dividend was raised by 6.3%, to 85 cents a share from 80 cents a share. The increase will be effective for dividends paid out after March 21.

Qualcomm's stock (QCOM) fell 1.2% in morning trading, to pull back from Monday's two-year closing high.

At current stock prices, the new annual dividend rate of $3.40 per share implies a dividend yield of 2.07%, which compares with the yield of the Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF XLK of 0.70% and the implied yield of the S&P 500 index SPX of 1.41%.

That would make Qualcomm's stock the 12th highest yielding of the tech-sector ETF's 64 equity components.

"We are pleased to announce an increase in our quarterly dividend," said Chief Executive Christiano Amon. "We remain committed to returning capital to stockholders through a balanced capital return policy, including a baseline of anti-dilutive stock repurchases."

During the fourth quarter, the company spent $895 million on dividend payments and repurchased $784 million worth of common stock.

As of late December, the company had about $4.4 billion remaining in its stock repurchase program, which represents 2.4% of Qualcomm's market capitalization of $183.8 billion.

The stock has run up 25.9% over the past three months, while the tech-sector ETF has advanced 12.4% and the S&P 500 has gained 11.7%.

-Tomi Kilgore

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03-05-24 1003ET

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