Qualcomm is currently focusing on using dividends to bring shareholders value rather than buying back its stock, chief executive Cristiano Amon told CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Monday.
“We had increased our dividend. We talked about annualized dividend targets, high single digits, low double digit growth rates, and we are going to continue to look for opportunistic buy back,” Amon said in an interview on “Mad Money.”
Qualcomm announced on March 9 that it approved a 10% quarterly cash dividend increase, raising the dividend from 68 cents to 75 cents per share of common stock and boosting the annualized dividend payment to $3 per share of common stock.
“We want to maintain strategic flexibility, also for M&A, because we see diversification working for the company. … We want it to grow faster,” Amon said.
The CEO’s comments come after Cramer questioned why Qualcomm isn’t purchasing its stock back. The chip stock fell last Friday after JPMorgan removed Qualcomm from its April Analyst Focus list but rose 4.64% on Monday, which saw a larger rally in tech stocks.
The company announced Monday that it completed its acquisition of Arriver from SSW Partners in a move to improve its Advanced Driver Assistance System software.
Disclosure: Cramer’s Charitable Trust owns shares of Qualcomm.
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