StockCentral > Dividends > Help
General
What Is the StockCentral Dividend Center?
What Are Dividend Achievers?
Data & Calculations
What Is the Dividend Payout Ratio?
Is How Are Industry Averages Calculated?
What Is the Indicated Dividend?
General
What Is the StockCentral Dividend Center?
While investing for stock growth and capital appreciation works best for most investors over the long-term, many individuals also look for dividends to add an income element to their portfolios. The new StockCentral Dividend Center features a selection of data and tools to help fundamental investors identify opportunities in dividend-paying stocks.
The Dividend Center features a calendar of recent and upcoming dividend payments, a list of companies that have recently increased their dividends, a dividend screener, and the Roster of Dividend Achievers, those companies that have increased their dividend every year in the past 10. Drill down through high-yielding industry groups to find and rank companies with optimal yields and/or payout ratios, or browse the most popular dividend paying stocks owned by investment clubs.
The Dividend Center is included with a subscription to StockCentral.com. Start investigating the best dividend ideas for your stock portfolio today.
Data & Calculations
What Is the Dividend Payout Ratio?
The Dividend Payout Ratio is a measurement of the percentage of earnings per share returned to investors as dividends. It is calculated by dividing Dividends per Share by Earnings per Share An Average Dividend Payout is calculated by using several years of earnings and dividends, such as from the past five years.
Increased payouts may signal a transition from true growth (earnings retained for future growth), to a more mature phase (an increasing portion of earnings distributed to stockholders) due to less need for expansion or working capital.
Payout Ratios differ significantly by sector, industry, and size of company. For instance, utilities typically pay out a high percentage of their earnings as dividends to shareholders each year. Smaller companies may pay no dividends at all as they reinvest earnings to grow their businesses.
Note that due to accounting rules, Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) will pay more in shareholder distributions than they report in earnings per share, leading to deceptively high payout ratios. Common practice is to calculate REIT payout ratios using Funds from Operations (FFO) per share in place of EPS.
Dividend Achievers are companies that have increased the amount of their dividend every year for the past ten years or more.
In order to be on the StockCentral Roster of Dividend Achievers, companies must have ten years of dividend history available, and then have increased their annual dividend every year in that period. Investors often look for companies that have regularly increased their dividends as a sign of the company's commitment to delivering for its shareholders.
Special dividends are not included in the calculations of annual dividends.
How Are Industry Averages Calculated?
The StockCentral Dividend Center includes a table of industry averages for various growth rates and dividend metrics. Each industry group can be "drilled down" into its constituent companies, and then sorted so that it is easy to see where a company sits in comparison to similar companies.
Averages are available for the following:
- Average % Current Yield.
- Average % Dividend Payout.
- Average % Dividend Growth.
- Average 5-Year Revenues Growth Rate.
- Average 5-Year EPS Growth Rate.
- Average P/E Ratio.
All tables are sortable by clicking on the column header cell. Click again to sort in reverse order.
Industry averages are calculated using weighted revenues, so that larger companies carry more influence in the values.
No outliers are removed, so one or more "unusual" years for a very large company can skew the results for an entire industry.
What Is the Indicated Dividend?
The indicated dividend is the expected amount of dividends that an investor could expect to receive in the next year if the stock were purchased at the current date.
For companies that pay regular quarterly dividends, it is calculated by multiplying the most recent regular dividend by four.
Special dividends are not included in the calculation of indicated dividends.