3 Tech Stocks Paying Better Dividends Than Apple

Technology stocks, once the domain of high-flying growth investors, are becoming an increasingly generous source of dividends for income investors.

(Image credit: iStock)

Technology stocks, once the domain of high-flying growth investors, are becoming an increasingly generous source of dividends for income investors. The information technology sector led the market by total dividends paid both for the third quarter of 2016 and for the 12 months that ended September 30, according to a FactSet analysis of the 419 dividend payers in Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index. Apple (symbol AAPL) was tops in the IT sector, paying $12.2 billion in dividends over the 12-month stretch.

But just because Apple handed out the most money to its shareholders doesn’t mean it’s the best source of income in the sector. In fact, Apple's stock currently yields just 1.8%, even less than the S&P 500’s 2.1%. So we set out to find mature tech stocks with solid business outlooks that offer superior yields to Apple. Our search turned up three blue-chip names. How blue? Like Apple, all three of our picks are components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Take a look.

Disclaimer

(Prices and yields are as of February 1; yields are based on the last four quarterly dividend payments.)

Dan Burrows
Senior Investing Writer, Kiplinger.com

Dan Burrows is Kiplinger's senior investing writer, having joined the august publication full time in 2016.

A long-time financial journalist, Dan is a veteran of SmartMoney, MarketWatch, CBS MoneyWatch, InvestorPlace and DailyFinance. He has written for The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Consumer Reports, Senior Executive and Boston magazine, and his stories have appeared in the New York Daily News, the San Jose Mercury News and Investor's Business Daily, among other publications. As a senior writer at AOL's DailyFinance, Dan reported market news from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and hosted a weekly video segment on equities.

Once upon a time – before his days as a financial reporter and assistant financial editor at legendary fashion trade paper Women's Wear Daily – Dan worked for Spy magazine, scribbled away at Time Inc. and contributed to Maxim magazine back when lad mags were a thing. He's also written for Esquire magazine's Dubious Achievements Awards.

In his current role at Kiplinger, Dan writes about equities, fixed income, currencies, commodities, funds, macroeconomics, demographics, real estate, cost of living indexes and more.

Dan holds a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College and a master's degree from Columbia University.

Disclosure: Dan does not trade stocks or other securities. Rather, he dollar-cost averages into cheap funds and index funds and holds them forever in tax-advantaged accounts.