The IBM board of directors today declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $1.50 per common share, payable December 9, 2017 to stockholders of record November 10, 2017. With the payment of the December 9 dividend, IBM will have paid consecutive quarterly dividends every year since 1916.
The board today also authorized $3 billion in additional funds for use in the company’s stock repurchase program. IBM said it will repurchase shares on the open market or in private transactions from time to time, depending on market conditions.
This amount is in addition to approximately $1.5 billion remaining at the end of September 2017 from a prior authorization. With this new authorization, IBM will have approximately $4.5 billion for its stock repurchase program.
Ginni Rometty, IBM chairman, president and chief executive officer, said: "Our strong free cash flow has enabled us to maintain R&D investments and to expand IBM's cloud and cognitive capabilities through capital investments, while returning capital to shareholders. We remain committed to both investing for the long term and returning capital."
IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business
services provider, helping clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on
insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain
the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly 3,000 government and
corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services,
telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM's hybrid cloud platform and Red
Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently, and
securely. IBM's breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing,
industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and
flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM's legendary
commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity, and service.
