Cellphone chip supplier Qualcomm Inc hiked its quarterly dividend by 16 percent and announced a new $4 billion share buyback program.

The new stock buyback plan replaces the company's prior $3 billion program, which had $948 million of repurchase authority remaining. The new plan, with $3.5 billion of available authority, has no expiration date, Qualcomm said.

At the end of last year, the company had 1.72 billion shares outstanding.

The quarterly cash dividend will increase to 25 cents per share from 21.5 cents per share. It will be effective for quarterly dividends payable after March 23.

Qualcomm shares were up marginally in premarket trade on Tuesday. They closed at $62.11 on Monday on Nasdaq. (Reporting by Sruthi Ramakrishnan in Bangalore; Editing by Viraj Nair)

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