HP Shares Get Only Minor Jolt From Dividend Hike

Shares of Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) rose more than 1 percent Monday after the No. 1 computer company announced a 10 percent dividend hike.

At the close, HP shares were up 26 cents to $23.89, after earlier reaching $23.93. Shares of the Palo Alto, Calif., computer maker are down 7 percent this year.

HP said it will boost its dividend to 13.2 cents a share from the current 10 cents when it announces its second-quarter dividend in May. It also follows last week's annual meeting at which CEO Meg Whitman said she would improve overall financial performance.

HP's move comes a week after Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), said it would start paying a $2.65 a share dividend for the first time since 1995 in its fourth quarter this year as well as spend $10 billion to buy back shares.

Apples shares, which rose $10.93 to $606.98, have gained 3.6 percent since the Cupertino, Calif. Company's announcement and have gained nearly 50 percent so far in 2012.

HP is the world's largest maker of PCs with a market share of 23.6 percent in the fourth quarter, compared with Apple's 9.6 percent, International Data Corp. estimates.

HP has paid a dividend for the past 20 years.