Dell to Issue First-Ever Dividend of 32 Cents Per Year

Dell plans to offer shareholders a dividend of 32 cent a share per year, or 8 cents a quarter, Dell announced Tuesday.

"It's something our board has been considering for some time and with the consistency of our cash flows and the shift that we've made to this enterprise solutions business, we feel confident that this is a great time to return this capital to shareholders," Chairman and CEO Michael Dell told CNBC on Closing Bell Tuesday.

The company has almost $20 billion business in enterprise solutions and services and is generating cash flow of $5.5 billion, Dell said.

"We think the areas where we can grow are really in the enterprise" arena, Dell said. "We think our server-storage services, networking, security businesses can be a real area of growth. It's where we've invested a lot with acquisitions. It's where we are fueling our future growth and investment."

Whereas Dell use to target the retail consumer, now only 20 percent of its customers are consumers.

Most of Dell's revenue and profits comes from the commercial side with businesses and institutions, however, about 50 percent of the company's gross margin now comes from new services such as Dell's data center and networking services, Dell said.

"We participate in consumer, but it's not really the big growth engine that the commercial and enterprise space is," Dell said.

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