
- Determine the share price of the stock you’re analyzing. Sometimes when investors say that they want to calculate the "dividend" on their stocks, what they're actually referring to is ...
- Determine the DPS of the stock. Find the most recent DPS value of the stock you own. ...
- Divide the DPS by the share price. Finally, divide your DPS value by the price per share for the stock you own to find your dividend yield (or, in ...
- Use dividend yields to compare investment opportunities. Investors often use dividend yields to determine whether to make certain investments or not.
- Figure out the net income of the company. ...
- Determine the number of shares outstanding. ...
- Divide net income by the number of shares outstanding. ...
- Determine the company's typical payout ratio. ...
- Multiply the payout ratio by the net income per share to get the dividend per share.
What are 10 of the most popular dividend stocks?
Top Dividend Stocks To Watch This Week
- Top Dividend Stocks To Consider Investing In Right Now
- Intel. Intel is an industry-leading semiconductor company that continues to create life-changing technologies.
- Apple. When it comes to top dividend stocks to buy, Apple would not be the first name to come to mind for many investors.
- Coca-Cola. ...
- Procter & Gamble. ...
What are some good dividend stocks to buy?
Things to consider for choosing a profitable dividend stocks to buy
- Minimum Dividend Payout ratio of 40% The company should at least have a dividend payout ratio of 40%. ...
- Dividend yield more than 3% Overall dividend yield should be above 3%. ...
- Clear cut dividend policy
Which companies pay the highest dividend?
Which Company Has High Dividend? As of December 29, Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE:VLO) dividend yield was 5.46%…. The health of Cardinal Health Inc. (NYSE:CAH) was under scrutiny. In terms of earnings, Prudential Financial (PRU) topped the list with…. NYSE:LYB’s dividend yield stands at 4.93% as of December 29, 2011….
How to invest in dividend stocks for beginners?
... Terminology for Beginners on hand, there's no need for new investors to panic if they encounter an unknown term while researching a particular stock. Hamilton removes the guesswork from investing by explaining terms such as dividend and retained earnings.

What is dividend in accounting?
A dividend is a distribution of a portion of a company's earnings paid to its shareholders. Dividends can be issued as cash payments, as shares of stock, or other property.
Why are dividend paying stocks attractive to investors?
Dividend-paying stocks are attractive to investors because they distribute a portion of their earnings to shareholders in the form of cash payments or shares of stock.
What is a stock brokerage account?
Brokerage Accounts. Many individual stock brokerage accounts provide online research and pricing information to their customers. Similar to the news sites, investors can easily find information on dividend amounts and payout dates, as well as other types of peer comparisons and screeners.
Can dividends be cash?
Dividends can be issued as cash payments, as shares of stock, or other property. There are several accessible sources to help investors identify dividend-paying stocks. Below we've listed a number of resources that can help you determine which stocks pay dividends.
How to calculate dividends?
To calculate dividends for a given year, do the following: 1 Take the retained earnings at the beginning of the year and subtract it from the the end-of-year number. That will tell you the net change in retained earnings for the year. 2 Next, take the net change in retained earnings, and subtract it from the net earnings for the year. If retained earnings has gone up, then the result will be less than the year's net earnings. If retained earnings have fallen, then the result will be greater than the net earnings for the year.
How to find out if a company is paying dividends?
The best way to find accurate dividend-per-share information is to read the most recent press release or SEC filing when a company announces its next dividend, or seek help from a good online broker, which will show the per-share amount of the last dividend a company paid, or announced it will pay soon.
How to calculate dividends from balance sheet?
To calculate dividends for a given year, do the following: Take the retained earnings at the beginning of the year and subtract it from the the end-of-year number. That will tell you the net change in retained earnings for the year . Next, take the net change in retained ...
What happens if retained earnings fall?
If retained earnings have fallen, then the result will be greater than the net earnings for the year. The answer represents the total amount of dividends paid. For example, say a company earned $100 million in a given year. It started with $50 million in retained earnings and ended the year with $70 million.
Why do companies calculate dividends?
One of the most useful reasons to calculate a company's total dividend is to then determine the dividend payout ratio, or DPR. This measures the percentage of a company's net income that is paid out in dividends. This is useful in measuring a company's ability to keep paying or even increasing a dividend.
What is the income statement in an annual report?
Second, the income statement in the annual report -- which measures a company's financial performance over a certain period of time -- will show you how much in net earnings a company has brought in during a given year. That figure helps to establish what the change in retained earnings would have been if the company had chosen not to pay any dividends during a given year.
What is retained earnings?
Retained earnings are the total earnings a company has earned in its history that hasn't been returned to shareholders through dividends.
What does dividend yield mean?
Dividend yield changes daily and moves in the opposite direction of a stock’s price. It is an indicator of how much money you can get paid in dividends. In exchange for owning the stock.
Why is dividend payout ratio important?
The dividend payout ratio is a very useful tool. To evaluate a company’s dividend payment capacity. And dividend safety.
What is the old investment expression?
There is an old investing expression that still holds to this day. “Invest in what you know.”
Does Yahoo Finance have a stock screener?
Yahoo Finance has a stock screener that I use periodically to generate dividend stock investing ideas. As does Morningstar. And there are many others.
Is it easy to find dividend stocks?
And I’m here to tell you that finding dividend stocks is pretty easy. When you know where to look.
Is it a good idea to overpay for dividends?
Investing in anything comes down to value. It’s never a good idea to overpay for a dividend stock. On the other hand, high-quality dividend stocks with safe dividends rarely “go on sale”.
What is dividends in stock?
Dividends are shares of a company’s earnings (i.e. profits) that are paid out to stockholders of that company on a regular basis (e.g. monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, or annually). Dividends are declared by the company’s board of directors. It is common for dividends to be paid in cash. However, some companies will choose to pay them in the form of additional shares of stock.
How to calculate reinvested dividend?
Because reinvested dividends take the form of additional shares of stock, the formula is easy to calculate. The total value is equal to the stock price multiplied by the total number of shares, including any shares purchased through dividend reinvestment.
What is a dividend reinvestment plan?
A dividend reinvestment plan (i.e. DRIP) automatically reinvests the cash dividends an investor receives to purchase more stock in the company. The dividends are reinvested without commissions or brokerage fees which allows investors to receive additional shares at a lower cost.
Why is it important to track dividends?
Dividends are a simple way for investors to watch their portfolio grow. But once you’ve selected the right dividend stocks for your portfolio, it’s important to track them. This will let you understand how they are performing right now and how they will perform in the future based on the variables you select.
What happens to dividends when the stock price goes up?
If the dividend stays the same, then stock price and dividend yield have an inverse relationship. When a company’s stock price goes up, the dividend yield goes down. Conversely when a company’s stock price goes down, the dividend yield goes up.
Is the dividend calculator accurate?
It may go without saying, but the results of the calculator are only as good as the data that you provide. Therefore you should be as accurate as possible with the information you provide. If you’re not going to be adding money to the account, don’t say you are.
What happens if you buy a stock before the ex-dividend date?
In a nutshell, if you buy a dividend stock before the ex-dividend date, then you will receive the next upcoming dividend payment. If you purchase the stock on or after the ex-dividend date, you will not receive the dividend.
What is the ex dividend date?
In order to capture or receive a dividend, investors must own a stock, ETF or mutual fund before a certain date. This is called the ex-dividend date. Holding a stock- through settlement- before... In order to capture or receive a dividend, investors must own a stock, ETF or mutual fund before a certain date. This is called the ex-dividend date.
What happens if ABC pays out dividends?
Payment Date. On the actual ex-dividend date, the stock will drop by the amount of the dividend, so if stock ABC is paying out a dividend or $0.30 per share, its stock price will generally fall by that amount. Note that depending on how the market moves on that particular day the latter point does not always hold.
Is dividend.com copyrighted?
Certain financial information included in Dividend.com is proprietary to Mergent, Inc. ("Mergent") Copyright © 2014. Reproduction of such information in any form is prohibited. Because of the possibility of human or mechanical error by Mergent's sources, Mergent or others, Mergent does not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy, completeness, timeliness or availability or for the results obtained from the use of such information.
How to calculate dividend yield?
All you have to do is divide the annual dividend by the current stock price, and you’ll get the dividend yield.
How much of a company's earnings should be given back as dividends?
Finally, look to see if the company is giving out too much of its profits in the form of dividends. Some investors like to see no more than 50% of a company’s earnings given back as dividends. If a company is paying too much in dividends, that could impact its ability to reinvest in the business and continue to grow.
What is the dividend yield of Company B?
Company B’s dividend yield comes out 0.04, or 4%. As a result, Company B’s 4% dividend yield beats out the 2.22% dividend yield offered by Company A. So if maximizing your dividends is your main investing goal, then you’d be better off investing in Company B’s stock.
What happens to dividends if the stock price changes?
If the stock price changes drastically over the course of a market day, the dividend yield would change too. Though dividends are often paid quarterly, for the purpose of dividend yield it is important to think about the dividend as an annual amount.
Why is the dividend yield so high?
Second, the dividend yield may be high because the stock recently took a huge nosedive. If a stock’s price drops from $250 per share to $100 per share in a matter of weeks without the annual dividend adjusting, the dividend yield will seem very high.
Can you invest in stocks with high dividends?
However, you’ll want to be careful and make sure you aren’t investing in stocks with a high dividend yield. Watch out for situations like this, as dividend yield rates that are exceptionally high are usually unsustainable.

Financial News Sites and Apps
Brokerage Accounts
- Many individual stock brokerage accounts provide online research and pricing information to their customers. Similar to the news sites, investors can easily find information on dividend amounts and payout dates, as well as other types of peer comparisons and screeners. An additional benefit for users of online accounts provided by a broker is the ability to tie into any current (or past) hol…
Securities and Exchange Commission
- All publicly-traded companies are required by law to report on Form 1099 all dividends they have paid to investors during the previous tax year on a quarterly and annual basis.1 As a result, you can research these filings on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's website using their EDGAR system. You can also quickly research a company’s financial information and operation…
Specialty Providers
- There are a number of dividend-focused specialty resources available online for getting comprehensive information on dividends. Some of these sites are free, some have paid subscription content, and some have a combination of free and paid content. With these specialty providers, you might have access to a calendar of upcoming ex-dividend dates, as well as scree…
The Stock Exchanges
- Tools and resources are also provided from the stock exchanges themselves to keep investors up-to-date with dividend data for the companies they list. The NASDAQ provides a dividend calendar, history tool, and screeners on the highest-yielding stocks.4 Meanwhile, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) provides a historical database to research ex-divid...