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2018 was a strong year for semiconductor giant Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), even if you wouldn't necessarily know it from its share price. The stock rose just 2% in 2018, but that was enough to outperform in a down year for the market as a whole. Even with the tepid share-price move, Intel had a lot to celebrate from a business perspective during the year, and investors came into 2019 with high hopes for the chipmaker.
Dividend investors don't necessarily look to tech stocks as great sources of income, but Intel was among the first tech companies to pay a dividend regularly. After going a long time paying just a token dividend, Intel has embraced dividend growth recently. Although it hasn't been consistent about the timing of its payout increases, Intel's dividend policies have been a key component of the stock's total return. Below, we'll look closely at Intel to see if it's likely to deliver another dividend increase in 2019.
Dividend stats on Intel
| Metric | Current Stat |
|---|---|
| Quarterly dividend per share | $0.30 |
| Yield | 2.5% |
| Streak of dividend increases | 4 years |
| Payout ratio | 38% |
| Last increase | February 2018 |
Source: Yahoo! Finance. Last increase refers to ex-dividend date.
The big boom in Intel's dividend payouts
Intel has paid a dividend since the 1990s, but it hasn't always been nearly as big a deal for shareholders as the current payout is. For a long time, the company delivered only minimal increases, and even as recently as the early 2000s, Intel kept its payout stable at $0.02 per share over a span of several years. Even as the tech sector rebounded from tough industry conditions, Intel didn't initially see the need to share its success with shareholders through dividend payments.
Yet Intel changed its stance by the mid-2000s. The tech giant doubled its dividend twice in a short span, and it proceeded to make multiple dividend boosts at irregular intervals from 2005 through the early 2010s.
INTC Dividend data by YCharts.
That's not to say that Intel hasn't gone through some tough times. During 2013 and 2014, it chose not to offer a dividend increase as it struggled through the painful process of trying to catch up with its rivals. Having stuck to its guns as the leader in the PC chip sector, Intel largely missed out on using its development expertise to come up with chips for the rapidly growing mobile device market. Rather than making a token payment increase that would have extended a streak of nearly a decade of consecutive annual dividend hikes, Intel let it lapse by keeping its payout flat.