IBM increases dividend by 15% and approves $8 billion in share buy-back
IBM (NYSE:IBM) continued its seemingly unstoppable upward trend today after the company confirmed that its board had approved a 15% increase in its quarterly dividend and authorized a further $8 billion in share buy backs.
The diversified information technology (IT) giant hit a new 52 week high this morning, rising 0.75% to $168.95, giving the company a market capitalization of nearly $206 billion. Shares in the company have more than doubled from 2008 and are trading at their highest level in a decade.
IBM noted to investors (not surprisingly) that it had now increased its dividend for sixteen consecutive years, and since 2003, increased its quarterly payout to shareholders by 400%. In addition to increasing dividends, the company also confirmed that it had approved an additional $8 billion of funds for stock repurchases. In addition to the last authorization, which has $4.7 billion yet to be utilized, the company now had mandate to purchase $12.7 billion of its own stock - around 6% of its current share issue.
"Since 2003, we have returned over $100 billion to shareholders in the form of dividends and share repurchases, while continuing to invest in capital expenditures, acquisitions and research and development. Our commitment to delivering value to our shareholders remains as important today, as it has ever been," Samuel Palmisano. Chairman, President and CEO said.
IBM made a number of small acquisitions in 2010, including Unica, a provider of marketing software solutions, Storwize, a privately held company focused on providing real-time data compression technology, Datacap, a software provider that help organizations to digitize and manage their information assets, and OpenPages, a risk management software specialist.
Related news
- Mariana Resources kicks off drilling programme at Las Calandrias gold-silver project
- Orogen Gold begins Phase 1 drilling programme at Deli Jovan
- Magnolia Petroleum on track to hit 100 wells target by end-2012
- Mwana Africa sells 15pct stake in Freda Rebecca gold mine for $405k - UPDATE
- Genel Energy on track as production increases
- Rambler Metals & Mining raises further C$4.13 million from Tinma International
- Wasabi Energy completes purchase of minority stake to own Global Geothermal
