Intel doubles down on dividend

Pennies for the rich

By Ashlee Vance in Chicago • Get more from this author

Posted in Financial News, 10th November 2004 21:59 GMT

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The generous brass at Intel have decided to double the dividend shareholders will receive next year.

Investors of record on Feb. 7, will receive a whopping quarterly dividend of 8 cents per share. Along with the dividend doubling, Intel announced that it will repurchase another 500m shares of stock. Intel has repurchased $6.6bn - more than 263m shares - worth of stock so far this year.

"Intel is committed to investing for growth and returning excess cash to our stockholders," said Intel CEO Craig Barrett. "While Intel's investment in R&D and capital has averaged about $9bn over the past five years, we have also been returning billions of dollars to our stockholders each year in the form of dividends and stock buybacks. Today I'm pleased to announce that we are doubling the dividend for the second time this year and increasing the stock buyback authorization by 500m shares."

Investors, no doubt, will be pleased to see the larger dividend and to see Intel working on share dilution issues. It's still disconcerting though to see large tech companies fall so far behind their brick and mortar counterparts in the dividend game. Imagine Proctor & Gamble or Exxon offering a paltry 8 cents per quarter.

It's also comical to see tech firms such as Intel, Cisco and Dell gobbling up shares after granting boatloads of options for so long. ®