Shares of Kulicke & Soffa Industries Inc. rose 0.6% in premarket trading Monday, after the Singapore-based semiconductor company said it has raised its quarterly dividend by 21.4%. The new quarterly dividend of 17 cents a share, up from 14 cents, will be payable Jan. 10 to shareholders of record on Dec. 23. Based on Friday’s stock closing price of $49.20, the new annual dividend rate implies a dividend yield of 1.38%, which compares with the yield for the VanEck Semiconductor ETF’s yield of 0.57% and the implied yield for the S&P 500 of 1.35%. The stock’s gain bucked the weakness in Kulicke & Soffa’s peers and the broader stock market, as the semiconductor ETF dropped 0.8% in premarket trading while futures for the S&P 500 fell 0.5%.
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