IBM (IBM 1.05%) is keeping itself on a prestigious list of stocks. By announcing a fresh raise to its quarterly dividend Tuesday -- the 26th year in a row it has done so -- the storied tech giant remains a Dividend Aristocrat. That status means it is one of the S&P 500's handful of stocks that have lifted its payout at least once annually for a minimum of 25 years consecutively.
The raise is extremely modest, though. The company is increasing the distribution by $0.01 per share, or 0.6%, to $1.64. This is par for the course as IBM raised the distribution by the same amount in 2020; in previous years it had been a bit more generous.
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That said, IBM's dividend yield is comparatively large for a company in the tech sector (which, by and large, isn't eager to remunerate shareholders in this way). On the most recent closing price, the new amount would yield 4.6%.
In the press release trumpeting the latest hike, IBM quoted its CEO Arvind Krishna as saying, "Client adoption of our hybrid cloud and AI technologies, strong cash generation and disciplined financial management all enable us to invest in the business while continuing to return capital to our shareholders."
Encouragingly for shareholders, Krishna added, "We remain committed to IBM's secure and growing dividend."
The payout lift comes several days after the company published its first-quarter results, in which it topped analyst estimates on both the top and bottom lines.
On Tuesday, investors reacted positively to the dividend raise, sending the shares 0.3% higher on the day, while the S&P 500 index essentially traded flat.
