Advantages and Disadvantages of Dividends

A dividend is a portion of a company's profit that is paid to its shareholders, usually in the form of cash or stock. The payments can either be on a regular basis (e.g., half-yearly) or at a time decided by the company.

Advantages of dividend payments:

1) Dividend payout serves as a sign of the company's stability. When a company maintains a dividend payout for a long period of time, it gives investors more confidence on the company's future earnings.

2) Some companies offer Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRIP) in which the existing shareholders can use their dividend payments to purchase more shares of stock from a company.

3) Dividends allow investors to profit from their investment without having to sell their stocks. For example, if the company declares a dividend payment of $0.50 per share and you own 2,000 shares, you will be entitled to receive $1,000 of income, even if the share price goes down.

Disadvantages of dividend payments:

1) The payment of dividend is at discretion of the company management. Even if the company makes a good profit, it is under no obligation to pay a dividend.

2) If the company pays a large sum of money for dividends, there will be less money left for the company to reinvest and grow the business.

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Author

Kelvin Wong Loke Yuen is a highly experienced education writer. He has obtained many certifications from the UK, USA, Australia and Canada, including an MBA and a Postgraduate Diploma from Heriot-Watt (UK's World-Class University) and a BCom degree from Adelaide (Australia’s Group of Eight University). Follow him on: LinkedIn