Stock Dividend: What It Is and How It Works, With Example

Steady dividend payments can be very attractive to investors nearing retirement age and looking for cash to take them through the retirement years. High-yield dividend stocks are normally found in companies that are mature, well-established and have a positive long-term record. To illustrate, assume that Duratech Corporation’s balance sheet at the end of its second year of operations shows the following in the stockholders’ equity section prior to the declaration of a large stock dividend. A stock dividend distributes shares so that after the distribution, all stockholders have the exact same percentage of ownership that they held prior to the dividend. There are two types of stock dividends—small stock dividends and large stock dividends.

Cash dividends have a slightly different effect on the balance sheet in that they reduce both cash and retained earnings accounts by an amount equal to the size of the dividend. Now, you must remember that stock dividends do not result in the outflow of cash. In fact, what the company gives to its shareholders is an increased number of shares. Accordingly, each shareholder has additional shares after the stock dividends are declared, but his stake remains the same.

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In the long run, such initiatives may lead to better returns for the company shareholders instead of those gained from dividend payouts. Paying off high-interest debt also may be preferred by both management and shareholders, instead of dividend payments. Profits give a lot of room to the business owner(s) or the company management to use the surplus money earned.

• In either case, the amount each investor receives is dependent on their current ownership stakes.
• By the time a company’s financial statements have been released, the dividend is already paid, and the decrease in retained earnings and cash are already recorded.
• For instance, you would be interested to know the returns company has been able to generate from the retained earnings and if reinvesting profits are attractive over other investment opportunities.
• For this reason, retained earnings decrease when a company either loses money or pays dividends and increase when new profits are created.
• High-yield dividend stocks are normally found in companies that are mature, well-established and have a positive long-term record.
• Likewise, both the management as well as the stockholders would want to utilize surplus net income towards the payment of high-interest debt over dividend payout.

This keeps per-share prices low, ensuring that new investors won’t be scared off. Instead of redistributing earnings, your company can decide to use the excess to pay down debt. This would have a direct impact on your business’s balance sheet since the excess is being redistributed to reduce your liability. In fact, your business could decide to distribute part of the earnings as dividends, while putting the rest toward debt. The investor would have $45 worth of shares—but when they receive one more share from the company, they would now own 21 shares with a value of $45. Conversely, a drop in share price shows a higher dividend yield but may indicate the company is experiencing problems and lead to a lower total investment return.

What Is an Example of a Stock Dividend?

The par value of a stock is the minimum value of each share as determined by the company at issuance. If a share is issued with a par value of $1 but sells for $30, the additional paid-in capital for that share is $29. If the company had not retained this money and instead taken an interest-bearing loan, the value generated would have been less due to the outgoing interest payment. RE offers internally generated capital to finance projects, allowing for efficient value creation by profitable companies. However, readers should note that the above calculation is indicative of the value created with respect to the use of retained earnings only, and it does not indicate the overall value created by the company.

As stated earlier, there is no change in the shareholder’s when stock dividends are paid out. However, you need to transfer the amount from the retained earnings part of the balance sheet to the paid-in capital. Now, how much amount is transferred to the paid-in capital depends upon whether the company has issued a small or a large stock dividend. Since cash dividends result in an outflow of cash, the cash account on the asset side of the balance sheet gets reduced by $100,000. Also, this outflow of cash would lead to a reduction in the retained earnings of the company as dividends are paid out of retained earnings.

The Nature and Purposes of Dividends

In other cases, where a company simply has excess cash for which it cannot find a use, the distribution of that cash as dividends should not have any impact even on its future profit potential. A company indicates a deficit by listing retained earnings with a negative amount in the stockholders’ equity section of the balance sheet. The firm need not change the title of the general do stock dividends decrease retained earnings ledger account even though it contains a debit balance. The most common credits and debits made to Retained Earnings are for income (or losses) and dividends. Occasionally, accountants make other entries to the Retained Earnings account. A reverse stock split occurs when a company attempts to increase the market price per share by reducing the number of shares of stock.

• If the company in the above example issues a 10% stock dividend instead, the shareholder receives an additional 100 shares.
• Some companies offer shareholders the option of reinvesting a cash dividend by purchasing additional shares of stock at a reduced price.
• As an investor, you won’t see the liability entry in the dividend payable account when the dividend is declared.
• This financial metric plays a pivotal role in shaping a company’s growth strategy and financial stability.

The beginning period retained earnings appear on the previous year’s balance sheet under the shareholder’s equity section. The beginning period retained earnings are thus the retained earnings of the previous year. For instance, a company may declare a $1 cash dividend on all its 100,000 outstanding shares. This is different from a stock split, although it looks the same from a shareholder’s point of view. In a stock split, all the old shares are called in, new shares are issued, and the par value is reduced by the inverse of the ratio of the split. The reason for the adjustment is that the amount paid out in dividends no longer belongs to the company, and this is reflected by a reduction in the company’s market cap.

There is no change in total assets, total liabilities, or total stockholders’ equity when a small stock dividend, a large stock dividend, or a stock split occurs. A stock split causes no change in any of the accounts within stockholders’ equity. The impact on the financial statement usually does not drive the decision to choose between one of the stock dividend types or a stock split.