As the second quarter earnings season wraps up, it's evident that the technology sector was among the hardest hit sectors. According to CSI Markets, the technology sector's performance is down 23% year-to-date as of Aug. 29, 2022.
However, there are three technology companies poised to bolster shareholder value by increasing earnings performance, offering share buybacks or increasing dividend payments.
IBM International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: NYSE:IBM) is offering a dividend yield of 5.06% or $6.60 per share annually, making quarterly payments with a strong track record of increasing its dividends for 28 years. As of 2021, IBM has operations in 175 countries and employs approximately 350,000 people, primarily selling software, IT services, consulting and hardware.
In the second quarter, IBM saw revenue of $15.5 billion. That's up 9% from a year ago. The company expects roughly $10 billion in consolidated free cash flow.
Seagate Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Holdings plc (NASDAQ: STX) is offering a dividend yield of 3.86% or $2.80 per share annually, using quarterly payments, with a decent track record of increasing its dividends for three straight years. Seagate Technology is a leading supplier of hard disk drives for data storage to the enterprise and consumer markets. For the full year, the Cupertino, California-based company paid cash dividends of $610 million and used $1.8 billion to repurchase 20 million ordinary shares, or 9% of the outstanding shares.
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HP Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. (NYSE: HPE) is offering a dividend yield of 3.50% or 48 cents per share annually, through quarterly payments, with an inconsistent track record of increasing its dividends. Hewlett Packard Enterprise is a supplier of IT infrastructure products and services, employing roughly 60,000 employees as of 2021.
The Palo Alto (NASDAQ:PANW), California-based company utilized $1 billion of cash during the quarter to repurchase approximately 27.4 million shares of common stock in the open market, with a total of $1.3 billion returned to shareholders at the end of the quarter.
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