Texas Instruments Inc. TXN

Texas Instruments is the 3rd largest manufacturer of semiconductors worldwide and second-largest supplier of microchips for mobiles. Based in Dallas, Texas and formed in 1951, they shifted their focus to the consumer electronics market in the 80s.

Following the recent acquistion of National Semiconductor, it is now the largest manufacturer of analogue components.

TI has delivered dividends to its shareholders uninterrupted since it first began making dividend payments in 1962. For an extended period of time, the dividend rate had held constant at $0.085 per share annually. As TI began to shift its product portfolio to higher-profit analog and embedded processing products, both of which require less capital spending, the company began to generate more cash flow from operations, and returned that cash to shareholders in the form of increased dividends and share repurchases. They have increased their quarterly dividends by more than 6x over the last six and a half years. In 2013, they raised their quarterly dividend by 33 percent, marking the tenth consecutive year of dividend increases.