Featured Articles

What is Dividend Income and How is it Taxed?
Ned Piplovic | February 14, 2019
In its simplest definition, dividend income is a stream of funds that investors receive from dividend distributions. The importance of dividend income can be different for different investors. The degree of importance that various investors place on dividend income can depend on other income sources, investors’ ages or a number of other factors within investors’ overall portfolio strategy. For instance,…

Bank of America Offers Shareholders Six Consecutive Annual Dividend Hikes (BAC)
Ned Piplovic | February 13, 2019
While enduring considerable financial troubles for several years after the 2008 financial calamity, the Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) has embarked on path to recovery and has rewarded its shareholders with annual dividend hikes over the past six consecutive years. Bank of America’s quarterly payout amount had reached $0.64 by mid-2007. However, the financial crisis in 2008 forced the bank to…

Walmart’s Dividend Policy Rewards Shareholders with More Than Four Decades of Annual Dividend Boosts (WMT)
Ned Piplovic | February 13, 2019
While Walmart’s (NYSE:WMT) current dividend yield hovers only slightly above the 1.99% average yield of the overall market, the company has adopted a dividend policy of consecutive annual dividend boosts fueled by long-term revenue growth. Four years after initially making its shares available to the public in 1970, Walmart initiated dividend distributions in March 1974. Since declaring that first annual dividend…

Microsoft Offers 14 Consecutive Annual Dividend Hikes (MSFT)
Ned Piplovic | February 7, 2019
The Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), the publicly traded company with the highest current market capitalization, has rewarded its shareholders with nearly a decade and a half of consecutive annual dividend hikes and currently offers a 1.72% dividend yield. The company’s current dividend yield of 1.72% is lower than the 2.5% to 3% minimum yield that income investors generally seek. However, Microsoft’s moderate…

Is Apple’s Current 1.7% Dividend Yield Enough to Incentivize Investor Buying? (AAPL)
Ned Piplovic | February 7, 2019
Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has a current streak of annual dividend hikes and currently pays a 1.7% dividend yield which, along with a potential share price rebound, could incentivize investors to consider taking a long position or adding additional shares to their existing positions in the company’s stock. Apple initiated dividend distributions back in 1987 and doubled its quarterly payout amount by…