3 of This Week’s Biggest Surprises in Tech: Apple Inc. (AAPL), Texas Instruments Incorporated (TXN), and More

So this jump doesn’t make me want to sing HP’s praises while I back up the truck to buy shares. Whitman’s stiff-necked refusal to change anything in HP’s failing strategy will be the death of a titan. Apple came along to undermine HP’s traditional computing strongholds with its mobile computing revolution. Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) quickly piled on with its own Androids and Chromebooks and also assaults HP with cloud-based alternatives in the server space.

These leaders are only the tip of the iceberg that sank HP. Yes, sank, in the past tense. Whitman’s company is doomed unless it changes with the times, and it’s almost too late already. I’m always stunned when this dead stock walking gets up and runs.

3. TI juices its dividend — again
Look, there’s nothing surprising about seeing Texas Instruments Incorporated (NASDAQ:TXN) sport a strong dividend policy. The semiconductor giant threw off nearly $3 billion of free cash flows in the past four quarters, and dividends give TI some serious investor appeal even in the face of shrinking sales and profits.

But when TI increased its payout by 33% this week, the announcement did catch me off guard. Why? Because it was the second dividend boost in just three quarters.

TI has juiced its payouts by a massive 65% over the last year — at a time when semiconductor companies (TI included) complain about macroeconomic pressures and slow growth. The end product? An effective 3.3% dividend yield and a 5.2% share-price jump as investors applauded the boost. The stock is trading near 52-week highs.

TXN Dividend data by YCharts.

The article 3 of This Week’s Biggest Surprises in Tech originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Anders Bylund.

Fool contributor Anders Bylund owns shares of Google, but he holds no other position in any company mentioned. Check out Anders’ bio and holdings or follow him on Twitter and Google+.The Motley Fool recommends and owns shares of Apple and Google.

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