Calculator · Dividends

Dividend yield calculator

Enter the share price, the dividend and what you paid per share. The dividend yield calculator returns the current yield, your yield on cost, and the income your shares pay each year and each payment.

Your numbers

4 for quarterly, 12 for monthly.

Current yield

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Yield on cost

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Annual income

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Income per payment

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The working

    Current yield against yield on cost

    Current yield divides the annual dividend by today's share price. At $2.40 a year and a $60 price it is 4%. Yield on cost divides the same dividend by what you paid, so shares bought at $40 show 6%. The income is $240 a year on 100 shares either way, since only the denominator changed. Current yield is the one to compare with anything else you could buy today, because today's price is what a new buyer pays. Yield on cost tracks how the dividend has grown against your own purchase price, and it says nothing about whether the shares still deserve a place in the portfolio.

    Annual or per payment

    Companies declare a per-payment amount, often quarterly. Multiply by the payments per year for the annual rate. A trailing figure uses the last twelve months of payments; a forward figure annualizes the latest one. They differ after a raise or a cut. A special dividend props up the trailing number for a year. If a company has just raised its payment, enter the new per-payment amount with the right number of payments, and the current yield you get is the forward one, which is the figure a buyer at today's price would collect if nothing changes.

    When the yield misleads

    Yield rises when the price falls. So a stock sliding because the market expects a cut shows its highest yield just before the cut arrives, when the income it advertises is least likely to last. When is a dividend yield too high lists the checks to run. The dividend cut case study works the income arithmetic after one. For funds against single stocks, see dividend ETFs vs dividend stocks.

    Questions about this calculator

    Is dividend yield the same as total return?

    No. Yield is the income part only. Total return adds the change in the share price, so a hypothetical 4% yield on a stock that falls 10% over the year still leaves you behind overall. Compare income stocks on total return over the same period, with the yield as one piece of it.

    Why does my broker show a different yield?

    Quote screens choose between a trailing dividend, the payments of the past twelve months, and a forward one, the latest declared payment annualized. They also refresh the price at different times. A trailing figure lags a recent raise or cut, and a special dividend can inflate it. The per-payment amount the company last declared, times payments per year, gives a forward figure you can check yourself.

    Are dividends taxed?

    In a taxable account they are taxed in the year they are paid. Qualified dividends get the lower long-term capital gains rates if you meet the IRS holding period, and other dividends are taxed as ordinary income. Inside an IRA or 401(k) they are not taxed when paid. The income figures shown are before any tax, and situations differ.

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