Apple Inc. (AAPL), International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), QUALCOMM, Inc. (QCOM): Three Tech Leaders With Growing Dividends and Stock Buybacks

Since 200, International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) has returned over $150 billion to shareholders in the form of dividends and share repurchases, considering that the current market cap is around $223 billion, this bodes well in terms of total returns for investors.

Mobile growth for these dividends

While device manufacturers like Apple and Samsung fight each other for dominance in smartphones and tablets, QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) doesn´t need to worry too much about that competition since it´s a well entrenched supplier for both companies. This provider of chips and technologies for mobile devices has many years of exciting growth ahead of it as the mobile revolution expands into emerging markets.

The company has a rock solid track record of recurrent dividend increases, and it gave a big boost to its capital distribution program back in March when it a announced a 40% increase in dividend payments. This brought the annual dividend payout to $1.40 per share which means a dividend yield around 2.3% at current prices. Keeping in mind that the payout ratio is only 27.5% of earnings, there is plenty of room for dividend growth.

QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) also launched a new repurchase program, the company can repurchase up to $5 billion in stock under the new program, this replaces the prior one that was for $4 billion and had $2.5 billion of repurchasing authorization remaining. Since 2003 the company has distributed $19.9 billion to shareholders via a combination of dividends and buybacks, and there is no end in sight for the growing capital distributions at QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM).

Bottom line

The tech industry is not the realm of small and risky capital consuming companies anymore. As the sector matures, and individual names become well established players with financial strength, tech leaders will increasingly reward shareholders with growing dividends and stock buybacks.

The article 3 Tech Leaders With Growing Dividends and Stock Buybacks originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Andrés Cardenal.

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