The dividend is clearly a chain that has a tight hold over the neck of the company. Our CEO and CFO worship it. However, if you add up the dividends for the amount of stock that IBM executives receive with Stock Awards and RSUs, they're getting a pretty solid side income at 5% dividend yield.
Accumulate stock. Reinvest dividends. Repeat. Sell off when you need a boathouse or retire.
I'm not even mad. Everyone should pursue wealth. I just want a piece of the action.
It actually is an IBM thing -- not legal.
Restricted stock awards are actual stock that just has to be held since it's restricted from sale. There you get voting rights and dividends (if the company pays one) as a regular shareholder would.
RSUs can't give you voting rights -- they are just a book entry on an accounting ledger. However, IBM could certainly pay dividend equivalents to mirror restricted stock. It would simply be an instruction to payroll based on # of unvested RSUs held on the ex-dividend date.
Point in fact, IBM used to pay them. Believe it or not, removing dividends was a cost saving measure that affected executives.
If there are any Execs watching this board, please confirm that you suck so much!
Execs should not getting anything... they suck so much.
Execs should not be getting stock, only options.
I mean once you vest you get dividends. Y'all are dense af
No. You do not get dividends on RSUs. It’s not an IBM thing. It’s a legal thing. It’s what an RSU is
Stock awards are not instant. They have to vest. Until then -- no dividends.
Given IBM stock price performance, if an executive continues to hold wealth in IBM stock that's not exactly a great decision is it? They'd be much better off putting it in to just about any other big tech stock. Just look at IBM TSR vs. Microsoft or Google for example.
Well stock awards are instant and yes, a lot of execs do sit on top of stock and reap quite a bit of money as OP mentioned
Stock awards are RSUs. IBM does not pay dividends on those. Once they vest, if the exec keeps the stock then they get dividends.
There are other reason to love a high dividend, though. Just not that one.
Your piece of the action is your 15% discount when buying IBM stock through the employee purchase plan.