A dividend is a distribution of a portion of a company's earnings paid to its shareholders. Dividends can be issued as cash payments, as shares of stock, or other property. There are several accessible sources to help investors identify dividend-paying stocks. Below we've listed a number of resourcesthat can help you determine which stocks pay dividends.
Key Takeaways
- Dividend-paying stocks are attractive to investors because they distribute a portion of their earnings to shareholders in the form of cash payments or shares of stock.
- Investors can determine which stocks pay dividends by researching financial news sites, such as Investopedia's Markets Today page.
- Many stock brokerages offer their customers screening tools that help them find information on dividend-paying stocks.
- Investors can also find dividend information on the Security and Exchange Commission's website, through specialty providers, and through the stock exchanges themselves.
Financial News Sites and Apps
You can find many options available on the Internet—such as financial news sites and aggregators—that provide top-notch data, tools, and analysis for investors. Whether getting a quote on an individual stock to finding specific information about a company's current dividend yield or checking out a screener to find out the highest-paying dividends in an industry, you can quickly use these (often) free resources to track down the information you need.
Sites like CNBC, Morningstar, The Wall Street Journal, and Investopediaare all great resources available for researching dividend data. For example, on Investopedia's Markets Today page, you can use the stock search tool to enter the company name or ticker symbol that you're researching. You'll be taken to a page that includes that company's stock chart, company profile, and fundamental data. Here you'll see if the company pays dividends. You'll find information about the dividend yield, the amount of dividend paid for the year, and dividends per share.
Brokerage Accounts
Manyindividual stock brokerage accounts provide online research and pricing information to their customers. Similar to the news sites, investors caneasily find information on dividend amounts and payout dates, as well as other types of peer comparisonsand screeners. An additional benefit for users of online accounts provided by abroker is the ability to tie into any current (or past) holdings fromportfoliosthat are dividend-payersand generate additional types ofpersonalized reportsand analysis.
Securities and Exchange Commission
All publicly-traded companies are required by law to report on Form 1099 all dividendsthey have paid to investors during the previous tax year on a quarterly and annual basis. As a result, you can research these filings on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's website using their EDGAR system. You can also quickly research a company’s financial information and operations by reviewingreports filed on Forms 10-K and 10-Q.
Specialty Providers
There are a number of dividend-focused specialty resources available online for getting comprehensive information ondividends. Some of these sites are free, some have paid subscription content, and some have a combination of free and paid content. With these specialty providers, you might have access to a calendar of upcoming ex-dividend dates, as well as screeners, tools, and rankings. The Value Line Investment Survey provides a number of services to help investors select dividend stocks.
The Stock Exchanges
Tools and resources are also provided from the stock exchanges themselves to keep investors up-to-date with dividend data for thecompanies they list.The NASDAQ provides a dividend calendar, history tool, and screeners on the highest-yielding stocks. Meanwhile, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) provides a historical databaseto research ex-dividend dates by a selected date range.
