What Is Dividend Analysis?
The Dividend card summarizes the cash distributions a company pays to shareholders and their history. Investors ask two questions: 1) What's the yield (annual dividend / price)? 2) Is it sustainable (payout and growth trend)?
6 min read
How to read
- The top badge: Growing / Stable / Shrinking / No dividend / Unknown. If the company pays no dividend, the card is hidden entirely.
- Four key metric tiles: Yield % (annual / price), Annual Dividend (TTM total per share), Payout Ratio %, 5Y Dividend Growth (CAGR).
- Below: consecutive years of higher annual totals, next ex-date (single payment amount — e.g. ~$0.91 quarterly), last ex-date.
- A mini bar chart shows recent years' total dividend amounts.
- At the bottom, the last 6 payments with date, frequency (Q/M/A) and amount.
Threshold ranges
- Yield ≥ 3%High cash return.
- Yield 1% – 3%Typical US large-cap range.
- Payout ≤ 60%Sustainable.
- Payout 60% – 80%Watch — less room for growth.
- Payout > 80%Sustainability questionable.
- Consecutive ≥ 3 yrs or 5Y CAGR ≥ 3%Growing band.
- ≥ -1% in last 2 yearsShrinking band (bad signal).
Watch out for
- Annual dividend (TTM total) differs from the single payment amount on the next ex-date; quarterly payers annualize to roughly 4× the quarter.
- Consecutive increases count calendar years where the annual total rose vs. the prior year; Dividend Aristocrat lists may use a different definition.
- Very high yields (e.g. 8%+) can be a 'yield trap': the share price collapsed, making the yield artificially high; the company likely cuts the dividend soon.
- Payout > 100% is unsustainable — the firm pays more than it earns (common for distressed oil and energy names).
- Growth companies don't pay dividends — that isn't 'bad'. Apple and Google didn't pay for years and still created value. For Shareholder Yield (dividends + buybacks), see the Cash Flow card.
Sector note
High-yield: utilities, tobacco, real estate, telecom, banks (3-7%). Low/zero: tech, biotech, growth software. REITs are legally required to distribute 90%+ of profits — their payout is near 100%.
Try on live data
See these metrics on real US stocks: