Amazon.com may be feeling pressure to join the dividend club

By Lewis Krauskopf

NEW YORK (Reuters) -E-commerce titan Amazon.com may be under increasing pressure to offer investors a dividend, as it now finds itself one of the few massive U.S. technology and growth companies not making regular payouts to shareholders.

Google parent Alphabet last week became the latest of the so-called Magnificent Seven group of market heavyweights to start paying a dividend, after Meta Platforms declared one in February. The announcements were followed by big post-earnings gains in the shares of both companies, though they were far from the only factor.

That has left Amazon and Tesla as the only companies in the group that do not pay a dividend. Microsoft's payouts date back some 20 years, while Apple and Nvidia have been paying dividends for over a decade.

Amazon will report quarterly results and hold a conference call with analysts after the market closes on Tuesday, in the midst an earnings season that has produced mixed reactions to results by Big Tech companies.