By Tess Stynes
Hewlett-Packard Co. said its board approved a 10% increase in
the tech giant's quarterly dividend, set to take effect with the
next announced payout to shareholders, anticipated in May.
The move raises H-P's dividend to 17.6 cents a share, an
increase of 1.6 cents a share, to yield 2.1%. The increased
dividend is estimated to cost H-P, which has roughly 1.8 billion
shares outstanding, an additional $288 million a quarter.
The company said the dividend increase doesn't apply to its
previously announced quarterly dividend of 16 cents a share payable
to shareholders of record as of March 11.
H-P has been gearing up to separate its personal-computer and
printer businesses from its corporate hardware and services
operations, which have been billed as the growth engine.
The recent wave of breakups and spin-offs at technology
companies and in the wider corporate world have been fueled by the
idea that companies with a narrower focus perform better.
H-P last month reported that its earnings for the January
quarter fell 4.1% as sales of desktop computers declined sharply
from a year earlier and the company's revenue growth slowed across
its different segments. The company also reduced its annual
guidance to reflect the effects of a stronger U.S. dollar.
Write to Tess Stynes at tess.stynes@wsj.com
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