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If you've ever owned stocks or held certain other types of investments, you might already be familiar with the concept of dividends.
Even those people who have made investments that paid dividends may still be a little confused as to exactly what dividends are, however… after all, just because a person has received a dividend payment doesn't mean that they fully appreciate where the payment is coming from and what its purpose is.
If you have ever found yourself wondering exactly what dividends are and why they're issued, then the information below might just be what you've been looking for.
Defining the Dividend
Dividends are payments made by companies to their stockholders in order to share a portion of the profits from a particular quarter or year. The amount that any particular stockholder receives is dependent upon how many shares of stock they own and how much the total amount being divided up among the stockholders amounts to. This means that after a particularly profitable quarter a company might set aside a lump sum to be divided up amongst all of their stockholders, though each individual share might be worth only a very small amount potentially fractions of a cent, depending upon the total number of shares issued and the total amount being divided. Individuals who own large amounts of stock receive much more from the dividends than those who own only a little, but the total per-share amount is usually the same.
When Dividends Are Paid
How often dividends are paid can vary from one company to the next, but in general they are paid whenever the company reports a profit. Since most companies are required to report their profits or losses quarterly, this means that most of them have the potential to pay dividends up to four times each year. Some companies pay dividends more often than this, however, and others may pay only once per year. The more time there is between dividend payments can indicate financial and profit problems within a company, but if the company simply chooses to pay all of their dividends at once it may also lead to higher per-share payments on those dividends.
Why Dividends Are Paid
Dividends are paid by companies as a method of sharing their profitable times with the stockholders that have faith in the company, as well as a way of luring other investors into purchasing stock in the company that is paying the dividends. The more a particular company pays in dividend payments, the more likely it is to sell additional common stock… after all, if the company is well-known for high dividend payments then more people will want to get in on the action. This can actually lead to increases in stock price and additional profit for the company which can result in even more dividend payments.
Getting the Most Out of Your Dividends
In order to get the most out of the dividends that you receive on your investments, it is generally recommended that you reinvest the dividends into the companies that pay them. While this may seem as though you're simply giving them their money back, you're receiving additional shares of the company's stock in exchange for the dividend. This will increase future dividend payments (since they're based upon how much stock that you own), and can set you up to make a lot more money than the actual dividend payment was for since increases in stock prices will affect the newly-purchased stock as well.
About The Author
John Mussi is the founder of Direct Online Loans who help homeowners find the best available loans via the http://www.directonlineloans.co.uk website.
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Stock Market Terms - Definition and Meaning
Stock Market Terms - Share Market Terminology - Investment Definitions, Financial Term Meaning A to Z
A - Active Share, Amortization, Application-Money Asset Coverage Asset Financing, Auction Market, Auctioning of an Issue, Automated Screen Trading (AST), Average, Averaging, Bear Cycle, Book Profit, Booking Profit, Broker, Book Value, BSE Sensitive Index or SENSEX, Bullion, Buy and Hold Strategy, Call Money, Capital Asset, , Capital Market, Cash Cow, CD or Cum – Dividend, Certificate of Deposit, Certified Cheque, Chinese Wall, Circuit Breaker, Clearing, Clone Fund, , Collection Ratio, Commodities Market, Commodity, Compound Growth Rate, , Correction, Cost-Benefit Analysis, Cover, Covered Call, Creeping Acquisition, CRISIL, Cum-Dividend or CD, Crossing, Cum-Rights or CR, Cumulative Preference Shares, Cyclical Shares - Daily Margin, Dawn Raid, Debentures, Defensive Investment, Defensive Stock, Delisting, Deflation, Delivery Order, Delivery Price, Dematerialization of Scripts, Depreciation, Derivative, Discounted Debentures, Discounting, Dividend Cover, Dividend Play, Dividend Rollover Plan, Dow Theory, Depository Receipt, Efficient Market Hypothesis, Eligible Securities, ELSS, Employee Buyout, Employee Participation, Employee Share – Ownership Plan, Equity Shareholders, Eurodollar, FIFO or First In First Out, FII, Fill or Kill Order, Fixed Income Investments, Floating Stock, Floor Broker, Floor Trader, FForward Dealing / Trading, Forward Delivery, Forward Shares, Forward Integration, Free Lunch Theorem, Free Market Economy, Front – End Load, Front – Running, Frozen Assets, Fully Diluted Earnings Per Share, Fully Paid Share Capital, Fundamental Analysis, Futures, Futures Contract, Futures Market Glamour Shares, Godfather Offer, Going Long, Going Private, Going Public, Going Short, Gold Certificates, Golden Handcuffs, Golden Handshake, Golden Share, Good Delivery, Good Faith Deposit, Graham and Dodd Strategy of Investment, Great Crash, Gross, Gross National Product (GNP), Growth Shares, Gun Jumping, Glamour Issue.Havala or Hawala (also, Making Up Price, Head and Shoulders, Hedging Against Inflation,Inefficient Market, Insider, Insider Trading, Insolvency, Institutional Investor, Intangible Assets, Interbank Market, Interest Rate Risk, International Finance Corporation, International Monetary Fund, Inventory, Inventory Turnover, Inverted Yield Curve, Investment Analyst, Investment Club, Investment Company, Investment Company Shares (Close – Ended), Investment Company Shares (Open – Ended), Investment Horizon, Investment Letter, Investment Trust, Investor Protection, IPO, Irredeemable Debentures, Issue Price.
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