Twenty-Three Years of Dividend IncreasesNarrow moat
Texas Instruments (TXN) — moat facet
Twenty-three consecutive years of increases, currently costing about 1.7 times the free cash flow that funds them.
Twenty-three consecutive years of dividend increases, currently costing about 1.7 times free cash flow.
The dividend was raised 4% to $1.42 a share per quarter in 2025, marking 22 consecutive years of increases, with a further raise since taking it to 23.1 Dividends paid were $5.00 billion in 2025 against $4.80 billion in 2024, and TI repurchased $1.48 billion of stock — 8.5 million shares — against $929 million the year before.2
Total returned: $6.48 billion. Free cash flow: $2.94 billion. The difference was funded partly by $1.20 billion of new long-term debt issuance against $750 million of maturing debt retired.
That is a deliberate decision rather than an accident, and it is defensible: a capital cycle is temporary, a 23-year dividend record is not, and TI's balance sheet is strong enough to bridge one with the other. Very few companies would rather cut the dividend than borrow.
It is also a genuine constraint on flexibility while it lasts, and it is why the capex guidance matters as much as it does.
Watch the payout against free cash flow rather than against earnings. On earnings the dividend is comfortable; on cash it has not been covered since 2022.
Twenty-three consecutive years of increases, raised 4% to $1.42 a quarter. The policy has not changed and the coverage has not improved — dividends have exceeded free cash flow for four years running.
The dividend was raised 4% to $1.42 a share per quarter, and dividends paid were $4,999M in 2025 against $4,795M in 2024. A board that has raised the payout every year since 2004 does not treat a pause as a neutral option, which makes the dividend the least flexible line in the capital plan while free cash flow is below it.
Source: Texas Instruments Form 10-K, FY2025 ↗- ReportedThe dividend was raised 4% to $1.42 a share per quarter in 2025, marking 22 consecutive years of increases, with a further raise since taking it to 23.Texas Instruments Incorporated, Form 10-K for the year ended 31 December 2025 (SEC, CIK 97476) — Item 1, Business. TI's two reportable segments are Analog and Embedded Processing, with remaining activities in Other; operations began in 1930 and it has design, manufacturing or sales operations in more than 30 countries. The product portfolio includes more than 80,000 products. TI states four sustainable competitive advantages: a strong foundation of manufacturing and technology, a broad portfolio of analog and embedded processing products, the reach of its market channels, and the diversity and longevity of its products, markets and customer positions, which in combination it describes as difficult to replicate. An unpackaged chip built on a 300mm wafer costs about 40% less than one built on a 200mm wafer; TI continued qualifying and ramping production at its newest 300mm fabs in Richardson and Sherman, Texas, and Lehi, Utah, supporting external foundry transfers and internal transfers from its legacy 150mm facilities, and expects to maintain sufficient internal capacity to meet the majority of its production needs, offering customers geopolitically dependable capacity. TI sells to over 100,000 customers, with about half of revenue derived from customers outside its largest 50; more than 80% of revenue was direct in 2025, including TI.com. End markets as a percentage of 2025 revenue: industrial 33%, automotive 33%, personal electronics 21%, data centre 9%, communications equipment 3%, and calculators about 1%. About 60% of revenue comes from customers headquartered outside the United States; revenue from end customers headquartered in China represented about 20% of revenue in 2025, while revenue from products shipped into China represented about 50%. The analog and embedded processing markets remain highly fragmented, with significant global competition from dozens of large and small companies including emerging companies, particularly in Asia. The company's stated objective is the growth of free cash flow per share over the long term. — FY2025 · publ. 2026-02-06 · source ↗
- ReportedThe dividend was raised 4% to $1.42 a share per quarter in 2025, marking 22 consecutive years of increases, with a further raise since taking it to 23. Dividends paid were $5.00 billion in 2025 against $4.80 billion in 2024, and TI repurchased $1.48 billion of stock — 8.5 million shares — against $929 million the year before.Texas Instruments Incorporated, Form 10-K for the year ended 31 December 2025 (SEC, CIK 97476) — Item 1, Business. TI's two reportable segments are Analog and Embedded Processing, with remaining activities in Other; operations began in 1930 and it has design, manufacturing or sales operations in more than 30 countries. The product portfolio includes more than 80,000 products. TI states four sustainable competitive advantages: a strong foundation of manufacturing and technology, a broad portfolio of analog and embedded processing products, the reach of its market channels, and the diversity and longevity of its products, markets and customer positions, which in combination it describes as difficult to replicate. An unpackaged chip built on a 300mm wafer costs about 40% less than one built on a 200mm wafer; TI continued qualifying and ramping production at its newest 300mm fabs in Richardson and Sherman, Texas, and Lehi, Utah, supporting external foundry transfers and internal transfers from its legacy 150mm facilities, and expects to maintain sufficient internal capacity to meet the majority of its production needs, offering customers geopolitically dependable capacity. TI sells to over 100,000 customers, with about half of revenue derived from customers outside its largest 50; more than 80% of revenue was direct in 2025, including TI.com. End markets as a percentage of 2025 revenue: industrial 33%, automotive 33%, personal electronics 21%, data centre 9%, communications equipment 3%, and calculators about 1%. About 60% of revenue comes from customers headquartered outside the United States; revenue from end customers headquartered in China represented about 20% of revenue in 2025, while revenue from products shipped into China represented about 50%. The analog and embedded processing markets remain highly fragmented, with significant global competition from dozens of large and small companies including emerging companies, particularly in Asia. The company's stated objective is the growth of free cash flow per share over the long term. — FY2025 · publ. 2026-02-06 · source ↗