How to Determine the Amount of Dividends Declared for the Year

Find the dividend payment in the stock tables.

When you invest in the stock market, you have the potential to profit in two ways. You can, of course, make money when the share price of your stock goes up. But you also can make money while you hold the stock. Many stocks pay dividends to their shareholders, and those dividend payments can boost your cash flow and make your holding more valuable. If you plan to include dividend-paying stocks in your portfolio, you first need to find out how much that annual dividend payment is.

Things You'll Need

• Financial newspaper
• Calculator

Instructions

1. Find the ticker symbol of the stock. You can find the ticker symbol by researching the stock on the Internet or by checking the company website under the Investor Relations section.

2. Look up the ticker symbol in the financial section of a financial newspaper like the "Wall Street Journal" or "Investors Business Daily." You also can look up the ticker symbol at sites like Yahoo! Finance and CNN Money.

3. Find the dividend amount listed in the financial tables. If the dividend amount has a "Q" next to it, the amount shown is a quarterly figure. Otherwise the amount shown is the annual amount.

4. Divide the amount of the annual dividend by the current price of the stock to get the dividend yield. For instance, a stock with a $2 annual dividend and a $20 share price has a dividend yield of 10 percent.

References

• Barron's Online: How to Read the Barron's Stock Tables
• The Motley Fool: Dividend Yield