Dividend per share (DPS) is the sum of declared dividends issued by a company for every ordinary share outstanding. The formula for computing the dividend per share is as follows: DPS = Total Dividends Per Year x Number of Ordinary Shares Outstanding. Companies issue dividends periodically throughout the year, but many investors focus on quarterly and annual dividends. Annual and semi-annual dividends are calculated by taking the company’s annual dividend and dividing it by the number of years elapsed since the last dividend was paid. Annual and semi-annual dividends are sometimes called half-year or quarter-year dividends, respectively.The total number of ordinary shares outstanding is obtained by multiplying the number of outstanding shares at the beginning of a year by the current share price. In other words, it’s simply how many shares there are at any given time in a company’s financial statements. For example, in early 2018 Apple held 129 billion ordinary shares outstanding valued at approximately $1.6 trillion USD at current prices. Therefore, the formula to calculate this is as follows: Total Dividends Per Year x Number of Ordinary Shares Outstanding = 129B x 713B = $19.49B The number of ordinary shares issued per DPS is calculated similarly to how many were issued total outstanding shares; however, this includes only declared dividends per DPS. This is because companies can issue new stock during a year that would increase their declared dividend per DPS without actually increasing their overall amount of dividend payments made that year— this would be a cumulative increase over time. A company can declare any number they want for their yearly dividend per DPS; however, some companies tend to pay more than others, so it’s natural that some companies pay less or receive less from their stockholders than others do.
