(Bloomberg) -- Texas Instruments Inc. authorized $15 billion in share repurchases and boosted its quarterly dividend by 8% to $1.24 a share, rewarding investors after a difficult year for chip stocks.
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The buyback plans come in addition to the $8.2 billion of previously authorized repurchases that remained at the end of June, Texas Instruments said in a statement Thursday. The higher dividend, meanwhile, will be payable Nov. 15 to shareholders of record on Oct. 31.
The chipmaker’s leadership has remained committed to steering its free cash flow toward investor returns, attracting long-term shareholders who might otherwise shy away from the volatile semiconductor industry. Other companies have begun to follow its lead by devoting more money to dividends and buybacks.
The latest move marks 19 straight years of dividend increases, the chipmaker said. Texas Instruments has also reduced its outstanding shares by 47% through stock repurchases since the end of 2004.
Investors battered Texas Instruments shares this year, though the stock hasn’t suffered as much as many in the chip industry. It’s down 18% in the past year, compared with a 26% decline by the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index.
Sluggish sales of smartphones and personal computers have slowed demand for related chips. But Texas Instruments’ components go into a wide range of products and equipment, helping it weather the downturn. The company gave an upbeat forecast for the current quarter in July, with sales and profit projections coming in ahead of Wall Street estimates.
(Updates with historical data in third paragraph.)
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