IBM Corp is in an optimistic mood at present and it has decided to boost its share price a little. According to the Wall Street Journal, Chairman Louis V. Gerstner was upbeat as he hosted the company’s annual meeting in Dallas on Tuesday. IBM is to raise its quarterly dividend from $0.35 to $0.40 as part of a combined tactic encompassing an already announced 2-for-1 stock split, scheduled for May 9th. The split, IBM’s first for 17 years, is ostensibly to make IBM’s $158 share price more accessible to the small investor buy cutting it in half. But the net effect of the split, combined with last week’s better than expected results, should be a boost in IBM’s total market value. Further moves to keep the analytical community happy include more cash for share buybacks, which increases earnings per share by reducing the number of shares outstanding.
