After Cisco: 5 Tech Giants With Enough Free Cash Flow to Initiate or Raise Dividends

After Cisco announced it would start paying a quarterly dividend for the first time ever last week, we decided to take a look at the other tech giants in the marketplace to see they're next. Here's what we discovered:Microsoft (MSFT): Microsoft Corporation develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a range of software products and services for various computing devices worldwide. Microsoft’s market cap is 208.38B and their dividend yield (rate) is 0.64 (2.5%). The next dividend will be paid June 8, 2011.With regard to the last ten years' financial statements, the trends of free cash flow, net margin percentage and return on equity are increasing. Therefore, Microsoft has room to raise its dividend through 2012. Microsoft holds over $40 Billion in cash on its books. It is time for the company to return more of its cash to investors.Oracle (ORCL): Oracle Corporation, an enterprise software company, develops, manufactures, markets,... Read more