Inside the Numbers

Dividends are cash payments made to shareholders, usually quarterly. When shareholders want to determine what kind of cash return they’re earning on an investment, all they need to do is compare the company’s stock price to the cash dividend.

For instance, if company X pays $1 in annual cash dividends and its current market price is $30 per share, somebody who bought today would earn a 3.3% yield thanks to the cash dividends.

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Divvying It Up

Companies ranked by dividend as a percent of stock price.

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Dividend Indicated 5-yr. avg. as a % of annual dividend Rank Company stock price dividend yield 1 Airlease Ltd. 12.3 2 12.8 2 Alexander Haagen Props. 12.3 1.4 10.3 3 Burnham Pacific Prop. 9.5 1 9.1 4 Realty Income Corp. 9.2 1.9 9.4 5 TriNet Corporate Realty 9.1 2.5 8.3 6 PIMCO Advisors 8.6 1.9 8.4 7 Pacific Gas & Electric 8.6 2 6.4 8 LTC Properties Inc. 8.2 1.3 8.5 9 Santa Fe Pacific Pipeline 7.9 3 8 10 Irvine Apt. Communities 7.2 1.4 7.4 11 BRE Properties Inc. 7.2 2.5 7.6 12 Enova Corp. 7.1 1.6 6.5 13 Dominguez Services Corp. 6.6 1.2 6.3 14 Edison International 6.5 1 6.5 15 Pacific Telesis Group 6.4 2.2 4.6 16 California Water Service 6.1 2.1 6 17 Southern California Water 6 1.2 6.3 18 Angeles Mtg. Inv. Trust 5.9 0.5 5.4 19 Starwood Lodging Trust 5.9 1.9 0 20 SJW Corp. 5.7 2.2 5.9 21 Herbalife International 5.7 0.6 3.2 22 Santa Anita Realty/Oper. 5.6 0.8 6.9 23 Pacific Enterprises 5.4 1.4 4.3 24 Bay Meadows Operating Co. 5.1 0.8 4.2 25 WD-40 Co. 5.1 2.5 5

4/19/96 stock Rank price 1 16.25 2 11.75 3 10.5 4 20.13 5 27.38 6 21.75 7 22.88 8 15.38 9 38.00 10 19.75 11 35.25 12 22 13 18.75 14 15.38 15 34.00 16 34.25 17 20.50 18 8.13 19 32.00 20 38.75 21 10.63 22 14.38 23 25.38 24 15.63 25 48.75

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