IBM’s Dividend Survived the Old IBM. Can It Survive the New One? – AOL

Quick Read

• IBM’s 31-year dividend streak survives on penny raises, with the quarterly payout up just $0.06 since 2021 as shares fell 22%.

• Cisco mirrors IBM’s hardware-to-software pivot most closely, while Oracle sacrifices dividend growth to aggressively reinvest in AI and cloud.

• IBM’s $14.7B free cash flow easily funds its dividend, but $61B in debt and a $10B quantum commitment claim the incremental dollars.

IBM (NYSE:IBM) has paid a quarterly dividend every year since 1916 and announced its 31st consecutive year of dividend increases in early 2026. The stock tells a less comfortable story. Shares closed at $225.47, down 22.31% year to date. The company funding that streak now looks very little like the one that built it.

Penny Raises Replaced Real Raises

Old IBM raised with conviction. The quarterly payout rose from $0.95 in 2013 to $1.10 in 2014 and $1.30 in 2015. Since 2021, raises have come one cent at a time, from $1.63 to today’s $1.69. The…