Dividend-paying tech stocks aren't always easy to find.
Tech stocks, after all, have a reputation for reinvesting in growth rather than sharing profits with investors. Apple co-founder and longtime CEO Steve Jobs famously refused to pay a dividend, believing they didn't create value for shareholders, and future tech entrepreneurs seem to have taken his lead.
However, there are some signs that that could be changing. Both Meta Platforms and Alphabet declared a dividend for the first time this year, something they could have done ages ago, and that's increased pressure on other big tech stocks like Amazon and Tesla, though there are no signs that they will pay one anytime soon.
If you're an income investor and you like tech stocks, there are some good options out there. Keep reading to see three dividend-paying tech stocks to buy today.
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1. Microsoft
Microsoft (MSFT -1.32%) won't win any awards for dividend yield, paying a yield of just 0.7%, but the tech giant is about as reliable a dividend payer as you'll find.
Microsoft started paying a dividend in 2003 and has raised it by at least 10% nearly every year since it started paying one. Its competitive advantages should ensure that those dividend hikes continue well into the foreseeable future, likely for decades.
Microsoft is currently the world's most valuable company at a market cap of more than $3 trillion, and it enjoys a leading market position in a wide range of categories, including enterprise software, led by its Office suite, cloud computing where Azure is gaining market share on Amazon Web Services, and its Windows operating system, which dominates the market in PCs.
The tech giant is also only one of the two companies, along with Johnson & Johnson, to earn a AAA credit rating from Standard & Poor's, and it's established itself as a leader in AI, forging a close partnership with OpenAI.
Given those strengths, Microsoft looks like a good bet for dividend growth over the long term.
2. Taiwan Semiconductor
If you're looking for dividends from the tech sector, the semiconductor industry is one of the best places to look, and Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM 0.60%) is one of the best options in the industry.
The company is the world's largest contract-chip manufacturer, with about 60% of market share of total third-party chip supply, serving customers like Apple, Nvidia, Broadcom, and AMD. It makes approximately 90% of the advanced chip production in the foundry market.
Taiwan Semi is also highly profitable with operating margins that hover around 40%, and it's one of the largest companies in the world with a market cap of $800 billion. Currently, it offers a dividend yield of 1.4%, and the company aims to pay a sustainable and increasing dividend.
Like Microsoft, Taiwan Semi also looks well positioned to benefit from the emergence of generative AI as many of the top chip designers, like Nvidia, rely on it to make their chips.
3. Oracle
Finally, the last dividend-paying tech stock worth buying today is Oracle (ORCL -5.06%). Some investors might regard the legacy tech company as something of a dinosaur in the industry, but that's a mistake. In fact, the stock has a steady track record of outperforming the market over the last decade.
Oracle may be best known for its database-management system and for the Java programming language, but these days the company is seeing explosive growth from demand for new data centers and its cloud-infrastructure services, driven by the growth of generative AI. The company has also developed a close relationship with Microsoft and Nvidia, which is helping to fuel its growth.
In its most recent quarter, cloud-infrastructure revenue jumped 49% to $1.8 billion, and the company's backlog, measured by remaining performance obligations, is also growing quickly, up 29% to $80 billion, showing that demand is growing faster than its ability to serve it.
Oracle currently pays a dividend yield of 1.3%, and the company has a history of robust dividend increases since it began paying one in 2009.
With its ongoing data-center ramp, growth of generative AI, and partnerships with Microsoft and Nvidia, Oracle looks like a dividend stock for tech investors to buy and hold.
