How to Determine the Total Dividends and the Per Share Dividends Declared on Each Class of Stock
When a company declares a dividend payable to its shareholders, it’s taking money away from the company’s financial coffers, leaving it with fewer funds for operations and investing. While the dividend serves as a boon for stockholders, the total amount of cash spent on the dividend is an important factor in determining how much operating cash the company has remaining. Equally important from a stockholder’s perspective is determining just how much their dividend payment will be, as seen by the per share amount declared for the class of stock that they own.
Things You’ll Need
- Dividend declaration
- Total amount of stock outstanding
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Examine the dividend declaration to determine the per share dividend amount for each class of stock that the dividend is being paid on. The actual dividend statement released by the company usually gives the per share amount. For example, a declaration of dividend payments of $1 on 10,00 outstanding shares of preferred stock and $.50 on common stock held by shareholders.
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Check the company financial reports on the date that the dividend declaration sets as the date that shareholders mush hold stock to receive dividends. Look for the total number of shares outstanding in each declared dividend stock category on that date. A company may have, for example, 10,000 shares of preferred stock and 100,000 shares of common stock outstanding. Treasury stock does not count in dividend calculations.
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Multiply the number of outstanding shares for the stock type by the per share dividend declared by the company to determine the total dividends for that class of stock. 10,000 shares of preferred stock with a $1 per share dividend declared equals a total dividend outlay for that stock class of $10,000. A dividend declaration of $.50 a share for common stock on 100,000 outstanding shares amounts to a cash outlay for dividends of $50,000.
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