April is an important month for investors, because it is the start of earnings season for calendar Q1 2018. For a number of companies, investors are also looking for dividend raises. One such name is International Business Machines (IBM), which last raised its quarterly payout in April 2017. Today, I'm here to provide my expectation for what a raise could look like this year.
As you can see in the chart below, IBM's dividend has doubled since 2011. Last year, the board announced a $1.50 quarterly rate, which I used for the "2017" year below. This was a dime per share per quarter rate, an increase of more than 7%, and at the time, represented a forward yield of about 3.7%. Shares were a couple of percent higher at that time, so investors buying now are receiving a higher yield even before considering a dividend hike.
