> What is the sharemarket?
>?What are GICS sectors?
Types of listed products:
>?Derivatives
>?ETFs
>?ETMFs
>?Hybrids
>?LICs
>?mFunds
>?MINI warrants
>?Options
>?Warrants
>?What is a share?
>?Rights, bonuses and splits
>?Dividends explained
>?What is dividend imputation?
>?Margin lending
>?Key sharemarket ratios
>?Glossary
Dividends explained
When a company earns profits from its operations, it can either reinvest them to create further profits and share price appreciation, or distribute a portion to shareholders as dividends.
A dividend is a cash payment made to shareholders from a company?s profits. Dividends are allocated on a per share basis and generally comprise an interim and final dividend each year.
Most companies offer two options for receiving dividends:
> paid as cash via a direct deposit into a nominated bank account
> reinvestment into shares in the company, otherwise known as a dividend reinvestment scheme.
Australian investors must include dividends as income for tax purposes. Dividends are issued as franked or unfranked. A franked dividend is one that?s issued with an imputation or franking credit attached; this can reduce or eliminate the tax liability.
When looking at shares, you may see the following pre-fixes used:
Cum ? means with
> A cum-dividend share price includes the dividend. An investor who buys a share cum-dividend is entitled to the current dividend.
> A security that is cum-interest means the buyer is entitled to the next interest payment.
Ex ? means without
> An ex-dividend share price excludes the dividend ? it is retained by the seller.
> The ex-date is the date at which shares change from being quoted ?cum? to ?ex?.
