How to Figure Out How Much Are the Dividends Per Share for Preferred & Common Stock
A dividend is another way that companies share profits with investors. Dividends are usually entered quarterly and tend to increase in $.01 increments. Companies announce the dividend every quarter in a variety of ways. Sometimes you can find the information on the website of the company or in company press release information. Information might also be available on financial disclosures to the SEC or on your favorite investment research site. The challenge is knowing where to look.
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Instructions
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Go to the company website. Look for a section on the site titled "Investor Relations." Look for information about dividends per share. Not all companies issue preferred stock; however, if they do, this information will be listed as well. Use the contact information provided to inquire directly if the information is not provided.
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Go to SEC filings. You can access these through Yahoo! Finance for the company of interest. Yahoo! Finance is the most popular financial research site according to Alexa.com. Any action, including dividend payment, must be reported to the SEC if the company is public. Look through the 8k (particular events), 10q (quarterly financial update) and 10k (annual financial review) for information on the latest dividend paid. Look in the notes to the financial statements or do a search within the document for "dividends" by pressing "ctrl+f".
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Review the press release. In general, companies will announce the quarterly dividend in the most recent company release. The press release can be found on the company website.
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Go to Yahoo!Finance. While this is secondary information, Yahoo! Finance has a page with dividend information. Yahoo! Finance gets information on dividends from Morningstar. Click on "Key Statistic" on the lefthand side of the page. At the bottom righthand side of the page you will see information about the dividend, from the payment date, to the yield and dividend per share. (See Resources for an example.)
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