4 Overlooked Tech Stocks That Pay Dividends and Have Room to Grow

Tech investors expect growth and buybacks, while dividend checks come from utilities and consumer staples. Four NASDAQ-listed technology companies break that pattern: an internet registry, a chipmaking equipment supplier, a consumer cybersecurity platform, and a circuit protection specialist. All four have a cash dividend going ex within the next two weeks. Their yields are modest. The appeal is payouts that use a small piece of free cash flow and have room to grow. The scale can be striking: the chip equipment maker in this group paid $420 million in dividends in a single quarter.

Verisign: The .com Toll Collector Now Shares the Toll

Verisign (NASDAQ:VRSN | VRSN Price Prediction) runs the registries behind .com and .net. Every time someone registers or renews one of those addresses, Verisign collects a wholesale fee. It managed 182.5 million.com and .net registrations as of the third quarter.

The upcoming dividend is $0.81 per share, ex-dividend Nov. 17 and payable Nov. 24. The annualized forward dividend of $3.24 against a recent price of $306 works out to a yield of about 1.06%.

Dividend safety: That forward payout equals roughly 35% of trailing earnings of $9.29 per share. Third-quarter operating cash flow came in at $268.0 million, compared with a quarterly dividend bill of roughly $72.7 million on 89.7 million shares outstanding. Verisign still had room to buy back 0.7 million shares for $189 million in the quarter, with $1.36 billion left on the authorization. Shareholders’ equity totals negative $2.28 billion, a result of years of aggressive buybacks, so cash flow is the key safety measure here. The regular dividend program is young: the first quarterly payment of $0.77 went ex in May 2025, and it rose to $0.81 the following February. That is one raise in the first year.

Bull case: The domain base grew 6.1% year over year, and new registrations hit 13.1 million in the quarter versus 10.6 million a year earlier. Revenue rose 5.7% to $443.0 million, and the .web rollout adds a new revenue stream. For income investors, that means a near-monopoly cash machine that just began sharing cash directly.

Risk: Verisign’s pricing power rests on the .com Registry Agreement, and any renegotiation that limits wholesale price increases would slow the cash flow that funds both buybacks and the dividend.

Applied Materials: Nine Straight Raises From the AI Chip Buildout

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) makes the machines chipmakers use to build semiconductors: deposition, etch, planarization, metrology and inspection tools, plus the services and parts that keep fabs running.

The upcoming dividend is $0.53 per share, ex-dividend Nov. 19 and payable Dec. 10. The forward dividend of $2.12 at a recent $372.27 yields about 0.57%, the lowest of the group. Applied is a dividend growth story. Its most recent raise was 15%, from $0.46 to $0.53, marking nine consecutive years of increases. The quarterly rate was $0.10 in 2017.

Dividend safety: Fiscal third-quarter free cash flow reached $2.33 billion, and the $420 million dividend used roughly 18% of it. Cash stood at $7.04 billion against shareholders’ equity of $25.63 billion. Chief Financial Officer Brice Hill laid out the framework on the earnings call: “We continue to expect to distribute 80% to 100% of free cash flow to shareholders.” With most of that flowing to buybacks today, the dividend has ample headroom.

Bull case: Revenue climbed 24.8% to $9.12 billion, and net income rose 42.7% to $2.54 billion. Management guided the fiscal fourth quarter to about $10.25 billion in revenue and $4.02 in non-GAAP EPS. CEO Gary Dickerson said customer visibility gives the company “high confidence that 2027 will be another strong growth year for Applied Materials.” The stock fell 36.1% in the month through Nov. 6 before bouncing 11.89% today, so new buyers are starting from a higher yield than a month ago.

Risk: China’s share of revenue dropped from 35% to 28% amid export controls, and further licensing restrictions could reduce the cash flow behind future increases.

Gen Digital: Top Yield in the Group, Backed by Subscription Cash

Gen Digital (NASDAQ:GEN) owns Norton, Avast, LifeLock and MoneyLion, selling consumer cybersecurity, identity protection and financial wellness subscriptions to 81 million paid customers.

The upcoming dividend is $0.125 per share, ex-dividend Nov. 16 and payable Dec. 9. The forward dividend of $0.50 at a recent $30.03 yields about 1.67%, the highest of these four.

Dividend safety: Gen’s asset-light model turned fiscal first-quarter revenue into $430 million of free cash flow on capex of just $4 million. Full-year fiscal 2026 free cash flow was $1.523 billion. On 603 million diluted shares, the dividend costs roughly $75 million a quarter, about 17.5% of that quarter’s free cash flow. The record shows a steady $0.125 per quarter since February 2022: reliable, but flat. Interest expense fell to $124 million from $156 million, suggesting the debt load is declining.

Bull case: Paid customers grew from 76 million to 81 million, and non-GAAP bookings rose 11% on an adjusted basis. Gen followed up on Oct. 28 with another double-digit growth quarter and a second raise to its fiscal 2027 outlook. Shares gained 33.05% over the past month. Recurring subscription revenue makes the payout one of the more predictable checks in tech.

Risk: Leverage is the constraint. Total debt of roughly $8.2 billion from the MoneyLion deal and the Norton-Avast merger means dividend growth has to compete with debt paydown for every spare dollar.

Littelfuse: A Dividend Raiser Wired Into Data Centers

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) makes fuses, circuit protection, sensors and power semiconductors that keep electrical systems from frying. It serves over 100,000 customers across electronics, transportation, and industrial markets.

The upcoming dividend is $0.80 per share, ex-dividend Nov. 19 and payable Dec. 3, up from $0.75. The forward dividend of $3.20 at a recent $386.71 yields about 0.83%.

Dividend safety: This is the best-covered payout in the group. Third-quarter free cash flow hit $215.7 million, while the dividend cost $20 million, roughly 9.3% of free cash flow. Year-to-date free cash flow reached $409 million. Cash stood at $824.8 million, with a consolidated net leverage ratio of 0.7 times. This company has the longest streak here: the quarterly dividend rose from $0.15 in 2010 to today’s rate, increasing every year of that record except 2020.

Bull case: Revenue jumped 22.8% to $766.7 million, and AI data centers now account for roughly 20% of the business. CEO Greg Henderson said, “Bookings were again a record in Q3, driven by growth across our businesses, and our book-to-bill remained well north of 1.0x.” Fourth-quarter guidance calls for $750 million to $770 million in revenue and adjusted EPS of $5.05 to $5.25.

Risk: Passenger car exposure remains soft, with Passenger Car Products down 3% and Automotive Sensors down 14% in the quarter, and component demand swings with inventory cycles.

Four Quiet Payers Built on Cash Flow

None of these four will fund a retirement on yield alone. Their dividends take a small share of free cash flow, so the payouts have room to rise. Littelfuse and Applied Materials bring long raise streaks, Gen Digital brings the highest yield and subscription stability, and Verisign brings a young dividend backed by a near-monopoly. Each pays its next dividend within weeks, and each has the cash to keep ongoing increases.

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