Monday, October 10, 2016

The Common Types Of Dividend Payments

By Cynthia Miller


Dividends are one off or periodic gains that are received by shareholders of a company. They are a great way of guaranteeing yourself a regular income stream particularly if you have invested in a profit-making company. Shareholders may receive a share of the profit either monthly, every six months or annually. Most companies award their bonuses once every year. There many different types of dividend payments that exist in the city of Florida.

Cash bonuses are the commonest. The amount to be paid is determined on the date of declaration by the board of directors. The pay-out is usually in the form of cash hence the name. The amount of money that each shareholder receives is in proportion to the number of shares held. The date of record refers to the date on which shareholders have the amount allocated and the date of payment is the date on which the payments are made.

The major advantage of giving cash bonus to shareholders is that they get an opportunity to enjoy the economic value of the company. The major disadvantage is that cash bonuses tend to influence the share price. In most cases it is usually by the same proportion. What this means is that when a bonus of 5% is issued to the shareholders, a drop of 5% in the share price should be anticipated.

A stock bonus is also fairly common. This is a bonus that comes in the form of extra shares for each share that one has. For example, a company may issue three extra shares for every share held. This means that an individual with 300 shares gets an extra one hundred shares to make a total of 400. The term stock bonus is used when the total number of shares issued is less than 25% of those held by a company.

A property bonus is a non-monetary bonus issued by a company to its shareholders. This bonus is captured in the records using the fair market value of assets that have been distributed. The market value may vary from the book value of the same property result into a profit or loss transaction. It is for this reason that some businesses opt for this kind of bonus so as to reduce their taxable income.

Scrip bonuses are issued under special circumstances. They are recommended by the board of directors when the company does not have monetary bonus to issue but is still keen on paying out at some point in the future. They work like promissory notes. The company may be planning to plow back the profits made or may not be making enough profits yet.

Liquidating bonus is a unique type. It is usually prepared when the board is preparing to wind up a company (hence the name of the bonus). The only shareholders that qualify to receive this kind of bonus are those that contributed the seed capital. The entry of the bonus into the books of accounts is similar to that of cash dividend.

Companies can issue one or several of these dividends depending on how well they are performing financially and the kind of resolutions passed by the shareholders. Potential investors use the history of dividend pay-out as one of the determinants of stability of a company. Ensuring a regular dividend pay-out is, therefore, one of the ways of attracting investment. The disadvantage of this is that retained earnings are reduced.




About the Author:



No comments: